BENGALURU: Pinpointing to a series of loopholes by Lokayukta police, and lack of accountability by revenue department officials, a Special Court acquitted the accused persons who were charged with
swindling Rs 3.72 crore by availing compensation from the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) for six acres of land.
The parcel of land was vested with the government at Arebhinnamangala village, Bengaluru North taluk, in 2013. Pointing to the mystery of shrouding the missing original compensation file from the tahsildar’s office, Judge SV Srikanth said this type of hanky-panky clearly shows how revenue department officials
are working, by throwing rules and regulations to the wind. Even to date, most of the original documents
are unavailable, which signals that proper periodical inspections and assessment of public servants is not taking place. If this tendency continues, there is no purpose in maintaining the revenue department, the judge said.
Noting that the kind of loopholes found in this case only shows that officers with administrative power are silent and have failed to initiate proper action under civil service rules, the court said the public will lose faith in government offices, and hence, they must be dealt with an iron hand. The court made these scathing remarks while acquitting N R Nagaraju, then Special Land Acquisition Officer, Dhanalakshmi, tahsildar, BN Narasimhaiah, village accountant, Alla Bakshu, retired land surveyor, BBMP, Sampath, and abating the case against BL Hanumantharaju, retired Assistant Professor, University of Agriculture and BH Shashikumar, since they died during the trial.
Observing that the investigation taken up by Lokayukta police is pitiable, with no detailed investigation into the tampering of Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board records, the court said it is not only shabby but also sets a bad precedent as there were some grey areas into which investigating officers should have held a detailed lawful investigation.
Going through the documents produced, the court said, “It can be certainly said that all was not well in the State of Rome and was an easy cakewalk for all the accused. The investigation is incomplete and one-sided, which was done only for statistical purposes. No investigation can take place at the whims and fancies of any investigating officer.”