BENGALURU: The Lokayukta police probe into a case of a woman wrongly pocketing Rs 41.90 lakh as compensation and five compensatory sites has failed to prove the charges against her. The probe by four high-ranking IOs failed to pay attention to the question of validity of revenue documents involved in the case.
This is a criminal case where special courts have been used as a platform by the Lokayukta police to question the validity of revenue documents. Unfortunately, this court has no power or jurisdiction to hold any revenue document as correct or incorrect because revenue matters are handled by revenue courts only, Judge SV Srikanth, Special Court for Lokayukta Cases, stated while acquitting the accused in the 2013 case.
Jayamma of Machohalli village, Bengaluru North taluk, allegedly duped the government by claiming compensation and compensatory sites from BDA by fabricating documents to show that five acres of land, which is part of over 37 acres of formal land bearing survey No. 6 at Lingadheeranahalli, though it was not part of acquisition made by BDA in 2000 for formation of Banashankari 6th Stage.
She was one of nine accused, including some revenue and BDA officers.
The records show that the land was allotted to Jayamma in 1954, when she was two years old. However, the IOs did not establish the correctness of age and questioned the “saguvali chit” whether it was forged. The police officer entrusted with such investigation must question the validity of the document, the court said while detailing several anomalies in the probe by investigating officers Abdul Ahad, M Ashwini, VPM Swamy and M Narayana.