BENGALURU: A city-based RTI activist on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) accusing Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav and other senior IAS and KAS officers of being involved in land grabbing.
In the complaint addressed to ADGP K V Gagandeep, ACB, complainant S Bhaskaran named Jadhav, Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner V Shankar, the assistant commissioner of Anekal division and the tahsildar of Anekal.
According to the complaint, 8.3 acres out of 74 acres of government land in Survey No.29 of Ramanayakanahalli, Sarjapura hobli of Anekal taluk, have been illegally granted to Jadhav’s mother Tara Bai Maruthi Rao Jadhav.
Bhaskaran suspected that Jadhav and other officials of the Revenue Department were behind the issue of RTC in the name of Jadhav’s mother without a valid podi by the tahsildar.
He added that Jadhav’s mother had already sold the disputed property to another individual in violation of Section 192-A of the Land Revenue Act 1964 which prohibits the sale of land granted by the government.
Bhaskaran said the remaining 66 acres of land in the same survey number have also been claimed by some people and requested inclusion of their names in the RTCs. Whether the other individuals who were granted land are the benamis of the Chief Secretary and other high-ranked officials of the state government or not has to be unearthed by the ACB, he said.
“I request you not to dismiss my complaint without any proper justification and not ask me for additional documents which are not in my possession, ‘ he said.
He adeed, “It is your prerogative and bound in duty to gain access to the documents which happen to be with the tahsildar of Anekal taluk,” Bhaskaran requested ADGP Gagandeep.
When contacted, M A Saleem, IGP, ACB, confirmed that they have received the complaint and it was under preliminary investigation.
There is uncertainty over the registration of an FIR as there is no specific time for preliminary investigation before registration of a first infor-mation report.