S R Hiremath of Samaja Parivartana Samudaya has accused V G Siddhartha of Cafe Coffee Day and Raja Bagamane of Bagamane Builders, both close relatives of former chief minister SM Krishna, of grabbing government lands using their influence.
Releasing a set of documents in this regard, Hiremath urged the state government to initiate criminal and civil proceedings against both, besides recovering the “ill-gotten wealth” from them.
Siddhartha is the son-in-law of Krishna and Raja Bagamane is the nephew of Krishna’s wife Prema, Hiremath said.
According to Hiremath, the Bangalore Development Authority, in January 2004, allotted a civic amenity site measuring 4476.44 sqmt to Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) to construct a petrol pump.
While allotting the site, the BDA had set a condition that the site should be used only for construction of petrol pump and no other construction should be allowed. But now, on the same site, a unit of Cafe Coffee Day and a McDonald’s Restaurant had come up, which is illegal, Hiremath said while releasing the lease agreement the BDA had entered into with the HPCL.
He further told reporters that besides using it for the purpose other than what it was allotted for, excess land was grabbed by the people in question.
“The site allotted to HPCL was 1,828 sqmt which was later increased to 3,825 sqmt by gobbling up an adjacent site. Interestingly, the second site was an industrial site which was changed to CA site. At the time of registering a lease agreement, the land size was increased to 4,476 sqmt,” Hiremath charged.
All these was going on when Krishna was the CM, his close aide DK Shivakumar was the urban development minister and Jaikar Jerome, another close aide of Krishna, was the BDA commissioner. “This constellation of power helped this land grab, which needs to be probed thoroughly,” Hiremath demanded.
More shockingly, the land which was allotted to the HPCL was kept reserved for construction of an office of the tahsildar of Bangalore North in 1998-99 and nobody knows how it was converted into the CA site.
Similarly, Raja Bagamane had encroached upon Byrasandra, Kelaginakere and Kaggadasapura lake beds in CV Raman Nagar, he said.
When contacted, Jaikar Jerome said, “Allotment of the land is made by a board comprising members and secretary and not just by the commissioner’s discretion. The land is given to HPCL, a public sector undertaking on their request. The question of favouring anyone doesn’t arise.”
“Secondly, it is a leased land and not an outright sale. If HPCL has violated the lease after July 2004, how can I be held responsible? I was out of BDA in July 2004. If the BDA finds that there is a violation of the lease agreement, then let them cancel the lease and take back the land,’’ he added.