Bengaluru, Jul 1 (DHNS): To add more trouble to an embattled Lokayukta, the Administrative Reforms Advisory Forum, an NGO, has stated that Justice Y Bhaskar Rao’s name had figured in the A T Ramaswamy Committee Report as one of the beneficiaries of the Judicial Layout sites.

Forum president B H Suresh, in a press release, said that in 2007, the House panel probing the government land-grabbing cases had mentioned about Justice Rao. “It has come to light that Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao had illegally got a site in the Karnataka State Judicial Employees’ House Building Co-operative Society.”

He also accused Upalokayukta S B Majage of illegally acquiring a site in the same layout.

Suresh pointed out that one should not have a site or house in Bengaluru to get a site from house building cooperative societies.

Advise ombudsman to step down: Ramaswamy  to Governor

Bengaluru, Jul 1 (DHNS): Anti Land-Grabbing Action Committee convenor A T Ramaswamy has urged Governor Vajubhai Vala to advise Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao to immediately step down from his post to uphold the dignity of the Lokayukta institution and to facilitate a fair enquiry.

In a four-page letter to Vala, Ramaswamy, who had come out with a detailed report on land grabbing that set the pace to retrieve common land, said the action was necessary because Karnataka had already been perceived as the most corrupt state in the country and world over. Not restoring faith in the institution of Lokayukta would only make this perception a reality, Ramaswamy said.

He demanded that the governor set aside the Central Crime Branch inquiry, ordered by the Lokayukta, and take suitable steps to get the matter investigated by a special investigation team, comprising members of ‘impeccable integrity’.

Ramaswamy quoted Upalokayukta Justice Subhash Adi who had said that when various cases against the Bengaluru CCB were pending before him, there was no reason to trust them to investigate corruption within the Lokayukta office.