BANGALORE: The Lokayukta Special Court on Monday admitted a case of illegal denotification of land against former CM H D Kumaraswamy and others, and directed Lokayukta police to probe it and file an investigation report by February 6. Social worker M S Mahadevaswami of Santhemarahalli in Chamarajanagar district had filed a private case in which he accused Kumaraswamy, his Cabinet colleague C Chennigappa, land owners Raviprakash and Sriram of having been involved in illegal land
denotification.
The petition stated that Kumaraswamy misused his office to secure denotification of 3.8 acres in Thanisandra of K R Pura Hobli on October 3, 2007, causing a loss of about Rs 34.62 crore to the state exchequer. The denotified land was acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority to develop Arkavathy layout in 2003. Judge N K Sudheendra Rao ordered the Lokayukta police to file an FIR in this regard.
The complainant alleged that the BDA had acquired the land after paying compensation to the land owners and had divided it into 57 sites, out of which 38 were allotted to applicants. Then, Chennigappa reportedly submitted an application to the state government asking it to denotify and return the land to its original owners as 15 of their family members were solely dependent on the land.