BENGALURU: In a major setback to former home minister Chowdareddy, the High Court has dismissed his petition challenging a criminal case registered with the then Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) – current Lokayukta police – for allegedly encroaching one acre and 19 guntas of land at Kannampalli. The land was converted into a residential layout, divided into sites, sold and developed with constructions.
At the same time, the court expressed serious concern over not arraigning Chowdareddy’s two sons – MC Balaji and MLA MC Sudhakar, who is a former higher education minister – in the crime registered by the then ACB in 2016 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
“Though the material prima facie discloses that Balaji and Sudhakar were direct beneficiaries, both stand conspicuously absent from the array of accused. How beneficiaries of allegedly grabbed government land remain outside the dragnet of crime is a matter that raises serious concern,” observed Justice M Nagaprasanna.
The court made these observations while dismissing the petition filed by Chowdareddy and another petition filed by the then commissioner of Chintamani Town Municipal Council BH Narayanappa, challenging the legality of the crime registered against them based on the complaint filed by the then councillor R Venktaramana.
“Land grabbing by those clothed with political power strikes at something far deeper. It erodes public faith in governance itself when custodians of public trust become beneficiaries of alleged public wrongs.
This court cannot permit investigation to be throttled at inception in a matter of such gravity. To interdict investigation, at this stage, would amount to shutting the door on truth, before it has even entered the room. Investigation, therefore, is not merely warranted. It is indispensable,” said the court, while directing the Lokayukta police to complete the investigation within six months since the case was registered in 2017.
In the complaint, Venkatramana alleged that Chowdareddy, who owned lands bearing survey numbers 12 and 13, converted them from agriculture to non-agriculture purposes. The adjacent Hullu Bani Kharab land bearing survey number 11, measuring 1 acre 19 guntas, was also taken away by him and his family members and converted into residential sites.
An unregistered general power of attorney then came to be executed by Balaji, in favour of Government Employees House Building Cooperative Society, which executed sale deeds in favour of several persons. Among 37 sites formed in survey number 11, Balaji and Sudhakar received seven sites each.
The court observed that the legal position concerning B Kharab land admits no ambiguity. Rule 21 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Rules unmistakably declares such land to be government land reserved for specified public purposes. It is not to be converted into residential layouts or transformed into a private commodity merely because power, influence, or administrative silence aided such acts, the court added.
