Ex-IT minister in custody

Former minister for information technology Katta Subramanya Naidu and his son Katta Jagadish, who are accused of taking Rs 87 crore kickbacks in the allotment of land to a software company, were sent to judicial custody after the Lokayukta court rejected their bail pleas on Monday.

Jagadish Naidu is a corporator of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) or Greater Bangalore City Corporation.

Additional City Civil and Sessions Court Judge N K Sudhindra Rao refused to grant them bail and ordered for their custody immediately. Both of them will be in jail till August 22, 2011 or a higher court grants them bail, Special Public Prosecutor Pramod Chandra told reporters. The Naidus are accused of taking a kickback of Rs 87 crore from Itasca Software for allotting 325 acres of land near Bangalore.

There are seven other accused in the case including the software company’s managing director S V Srinivas, whose bail plea was also rejected. On July 8, the Lokayukta police had filed a charge sheet in the case against nine persons for irregularities in the land allotment. Naidu had resigned from the ministry of ex-Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa last December after registration of an FIR.

Subramanya Naidu is charged with clearing Itasca’s application for land and flouting rules when he was industries minister in the Janata Dal (Secular) and BJP coalition government in 2006-07.

On December 3 last year, he quit as IT minister in the B S Yeddyurappa ministry, a day after police attached to Lokayukta (ombudsman) filed the case against him and others. Jagadish Naidu was arrested in October 2010 for trying to bribe a witness. He was on bail in the same case.

In another case, the special Lokayukta court on Monday issued summons to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and 14 others to appear before it on August 27 in connection with a private complaint against them. Yeddyurappa is alleged to have denotified lands favouring his family members. Pronouncing the order on the second complaint by advocate Sirajin Basha, Judge Sudhindra Rao said Yeddyurappa and others have been directed to appear on August 27.

In the complaint, Basha has alleged that Yeddyurappa denotified 2.5 acres in Arakere village, 1.7 acres in Devarachikkanahalli in Bangalore South taluk and 1.21 acres in Geddalahalli village in Bangalore East taluk violating rules. Yeddyurappa quit recently as chief minister after the Lokayukta report indicted him on illegal mining.