BENGALURU: Days after accusing the son of CM Siddaramaiah of illegally acquiring prime land near the Hebbal flyover in the city, the BJP upped the ante on Tuesday, charging the CM with denotifying more than six acres of land at Bhoopasandra, worth Rs 300 crores, and vowed to file a case in the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB).
Describing it as "a clear case of corruption," former minister and president of the OBC Morcha, B. J. Puttaswamy, said the BJP would seek permission for prosecution of the Chief Minister and officers of Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA).
Mr Siddaramaiah, however, challenged BJP leaders to make public, orders of the denotification. "I have not denotified, so where is the allegation? They are spreading lies as elections are approaching, and by doing these things, they want to spoil my image. They are not going to succeed," he said, hinting at legal action against Mr Puttaswamy.
‘CM forced BDA to denotify 6.2 acres’
Continuing its attempts to dig out more dirt on the ruling Congress in the run- up to the state assembly elections, the BJP on Tuesday claimed that CM Siddaramaiah had forced the BDA to denotify 6.26 acres of BDA land in survey numbers 20 and 21 in Bhoopasandra, Bengaluru north taluk to help a Congress politician.
“Siddaramaiah behaves like he is Sathya Harishchandra (Hindu mythological king known for his honesty), but he induluged in corruption when he denotified the land worth of Rs 300 crore in a prime area of Bengaluru,” charged former Minister and BJP MLC, B.J. Puttaswamy at a press conference here, warning that he would soon file a case before the Anti-Corruption Bureau, seeking prosecution of the CM and BDA officials and also file a contempt petition before the Supreme Court through the affected landowners.
Releasing a note by the CM to the then BDA Commissioner written on February 14, 2012, asking him to consider the plea of the petitioner, K.V. Jayalakshmamma, to denotify the land in question, he said the high court later struck down this denotification and its order was upheld by the Supreme Court on November 18, 2015. But another single bench of the High Court ruled in favour of the denotification and cancelled the land acquisition proceedings of the BDA on February 5, 2016 allowing Ms Jayalakshmamma to get back her 6 acres in Bhoopasandra.
Mr. Puttaswamy claimed the BDA had deliberately thrown in the towel by making no mention of the previous High Court and Supreme Court orders to help its case and also withdrawing its appeal in the High Court on direct orders from Mr Siddaramaiah.
The BJP leader claimed the CM had intervened because Ms Jayalakshmamma had given general power of attorney (GPA) to one Keerthi Raj Sheety, an associate of senior politician Ravishankar Shetty, to handle the case on her behalf.
Mr Ravishankar Shetty, when contacted, however, dismissed the charges against him and said that both Mr Keerthi Raj Shetty and Ms Jayalakshmamma had decided to file a criminal defamation case against Mr. Puttaswamy for making “ false and malicious” charges against them.
