Court summons BSY in land denotification case

In fresh trouble for former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, the Lokayukta court on Tuesday ordered issue of summons to him, his son B Y Raghavendra, MP, and five other ‘benamidars’ in a case over alleged denotification of land in Bhadravathi in Shimoga district.

Judge N K Sudhindra Rao further directed all the seven accused to appear before him on September 25. The five benamidars are — B K Somashekhar, his wife B S Uma Devi, sister B K Radhamani, his mother Adi Lakshmamamma and one H V Manjunath, who was asked to execute the sale deed in favour of Dhavalagiri Properties, owned by Yeddyurappa’s family members.

 

While pronouncing the order, the court made its observation on the report of Deputy Commissioner Shinmoga Vedamurthy who stated that no irregularisation had taken place (which was incorrect), and sought to bring it to the notice of the Chief Secretary.

Complainant Vinod alleged that Yeddyurappa had abused his office and denotified 69 acres of land at Bhadravathi in 2010. He charged the former chief minister with having used the benamidars to get the lands transferred in the name of Dhavalagiri Properties, two months after denotifying them.

Vinod also alleged that more than 250 acres of forest land at the Reserve Forest in Bhadravathi was denotified between 2010-2011 and that Yeddyurappa had amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Meanwhile, Governor H R Bhardwaj on Tuesday defended his decision to not give assent to the Karnataka Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill and returning it to the government. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here, Bhardwaj said he returned the bill yesterday as he apprehended that the legislation would help land grabbers.

Bhardwaj, referring to the Dr Balasubramaniam Committee report which had unearthed illegal encroachments on 1.1 million hectares of government land by land grabbers across the state, said he has suggested to the government to discuss certain issues concerning the bill. Through the legislation, the government wanted to regularise houses constructed illegally on government lands, he said.