This Nov. 2007 photo shows Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa coming out of Raj Bhavan after meeting the then Governor Rameshwar Thakur. File Photo: Bhagya Prakash K, The Hindu

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Lokayukta on Saturday filed FIRs against former chief ministers and BJP and JDS leaders BS Yeddyurappa and HD Kumaraswamy in an alleged illegal land denotification case.

According to RTI documents, Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa have been made, respectively, the number one and number two accused in the case.

Both former chief ministers are accused of denotifying a prime plot to benefit Kumaraswamy’s relative.

The CID had held a preliminary inquiry on the findings of a Comptroller and Auditor General of India report of 2012 on land denotification carried out by the successive governments from 2007-12 and had recently submitted its report to the Lokayukta.

The report said the accused have prima facie played a stellar role in denotifying huge tracts of land, causing a financial loss to the exchequer, Lokayukta said.

The CAG had made scathing remarks against the incumbent chief ministers between 2007 to 2012 who disregarded the well- defined law that once the land is in possession it could not be denotified.

The denotification of 610 acres and 16.5 acres of land referred to in the CAG report were ordered when Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa were the chief ministers and in between during a period of Governor’s rule.

(Agencies)

This Nov. 2007 photo shows Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa coming out of Raj Bhavan after meeting the then Governor Rameshwar Thakur. File Photo: Bhagya Prakash K, The Hindu

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Lokayukta Police has filed FIRs against former Chief Ministers B S Yeddyurappa and H D Kumaraswamy in a land denotificaton case, charging them under the Prevention of Corruption Act and several IPC provisions, including criminal conspiracy and cheating.

Both leaders have been accused of denotifying land at Matadahalli Layout in R T Nagar here, with Vimala, the mother-in-law of Kumaraswamy, and her son T S Channappa, also being named in the FIRs, Lokayukta Superintendent of Police Sonia Narang said here.

Sections 13 (i) (c) and (d) and 13 (ii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, pertaining to criminal misconduct by public servants have been invoked against Yeddyurappa and Kumaraswamy, Narang said.

Denotification is a process of returning government land acquired for a project to private parties.

The process gathered pace after Kumaraswamy put up the files, and the land was denotified by Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister in 2010, social activist Jayayakumar Hiremath, who is the complainant, charged.

JDS leader Kumaraswamy, predecessor to Yeddyurappa, had headed a BJP-JDS coalition government.

Yeddyurappa had denotified one acre and 11 guntas (1/40th of an acre) of land, which was originally owned by Thimmareddy, Nagappa and Muniswamappa, Hiremath charged.

He also alleged that Bangalore Development Authority had acquired the land for forming a layout Mathadahalli for which it issued the preliminary notification in 1976.

The land was taken into possession in 1988 after final notification and compensation paid to land losers subsequently, Hiremath said.

Besides these, charges under Sections 401 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 418 (cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may ensue to person whose interest offender is bound to protect), 420 (cheating), and 120 B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code have also been slapped against them.

(PTI)