Relief for HD Kumaraswamy as court discharges him in land denotification case
BENGALURU:A special court here on Monday dropped the illegal land denotification case against Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. The court discharged him from the case registered under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly denotifying a piece of land acquired in Thanisandra for the formation of Arkavathy Layout in 2007.
Judge B V Patil also discharged former minister C Chennigappa, former IAS officer Jyothi Ramalingam, the then Principal Secretary of the Urban Development Department, A V Sriram and A V Ravi Prakash, who were the landowners.
Based on a private complaint filed by one Mahadevaswamy M S, a case was registered against these five persons. Allowing the discharge applications of four accused, the court discharged all the five. Hasmath Pasha, Kumaraswamy’s counsel, told media that the discharge applications were allowed on the ground that sanction was not obtained from the competent authority to prosecute the accused before filing of charge-sheet, which is mandatory as per Section 197 of CrPC.
Pasha explained that the land to the extent of 3.09 acres was acquired for the formation of Arkavathy Layout in Thanisandra and it was dropped from the notification on September 27, 2007 by Kumaraswamy as chief minister after following due procedures.
‘Not a fit case to frame charge’
The denotification had reached finality and no one challenged it but criminal proceedings were initiated. Moreover, the complainant had no locus standi and these were also the grounds for allowing discharge applications, he said.Pasha added that the court has also pointed out the four years delay in filing a private complaint by Mahadevaswamy before the Lokayukta court accusing Kumaraswamy of denotifying the land for illegal gratification. But there were no materials in support of the allegations and hence the court allowed the discharge applications, saying that it is not a fit case to frame charges, Pasha added.
CASE HISTORY
State government acquired lands for formation of Arkavathy Layout by Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA)
3.09 acres denotified in Thanisandra on September 27, 2007, when Kumaraswamy was CM
Allegation was that
land was denotified illegally to help some people for illegal gratification
Case filed in 2011, four years after denotification, against Kumaraswamy and four others