Karnataka Home Minister R Ashok was on Friday given a clean chit by the Lokayukta police before a court in a case pertaining to alleged misuse of office in land denotification.
The Lokayukta police submitted a report to Lokayukta Judge N Sudhindra Rao, exonerating the minister of the charge into which it had ordered a probe, based on a complaint by an RTI activist.
Lokayukta police submitted that it was the fault of the land owner and sub-registrar, and not Ashok, for registering the property, which the minister had bought after it was notified by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). As per law, BDA notified land cannot be sold and sub-registrars should not facilitate any such sale, it contended. “Hence the Home Minister cannot be faulted for buying the notified land,” Lokayukta police said. Moreover, Lokayukta police said the original land owner, not Ashok, gave a letter to former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, asking for denotification of the land.
After the report was submitted, the judge directed RTI activist Jayakumar Hiremath to file his objections and posted the hearing to January 6. Hiremath had filed the complaint accusing Ashoka of being involved in illegal denotification of government land, causing an estimated loss of Rs 50 crore to the state exchequer. He had alleged that the minister had secured denotification of 23.12 guntas (a gunta is 1/40 of an acre) of land belonging to the Bangalore Development Authority when B S Yeddyurappa was the chief minister. The activist, however, has said he would move the Supreme Court.
