Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday registered a criminal case against a senior Army officer, some unknown officers of the Defence Research & Development Organisation, Ministry of Defence (MoD) and a private person in Bengaluru for “cheating” and illegally transferring land worth around Rs 500 crore to the private person against the decision of the MoD between 2004 and 2006.
“The CBI has registered a case against Lt Col, M.G. Thimmaiah, the then estate manager, Estate Management Unit (EMU), C.V. Raman Nagar, DRDO Township, Bengaluru, some unknown officers of the DRDO and Mr. N.H. Rustumji under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) r/w 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 13 (2) (punishment for criminal misconduct by a public servant) r/w 13 (1 (d) (abuse of office by a public servant for obtaining a valuable thing or pecuniary advantage for self or any other person without any public interest) of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988.
The accused officers had allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with the private person during 2004-2006. They reportedly abused their official position and cheated the Union of India by transferring 12 acres and one gunta of land in favour of the private person against the decision taken by the Ministry of Defence,” stated an official statement.
“The Lt Col had abused his official position in as much as that, when the matter (related to the land in question) was sub judice before the Supreme Court he had submitted a joint memo to be filed before the SC, which was different from the joint memo approved by the competent authority,” read the complaint based on which the CBI had registered the case.
The CBI Monday conducted simultaneous searches at seven places including the residential and official premises of the accused officers at Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kodagu district. “We have recovered some incriminating documents pertaining to the case,” said an official source.
In 1989 based on the DRDO request the State government had notified 97 acres of land in Benniganhalli, K.R. Puram hobli in Bengaluru East taluk but between 1994 and ’96 the State government denotified 44 acres of the land without informing the Central government. The Centre had challenged the denotification in the Karnataka High Court, which had upheld the DRDO’s contention. The case was later contested in the Supreme Court by private land owners in various civil appeals.
