Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Nov 2: H S Ramakrishna, a Karnataka Administration Services (KAS) officer, who has been accused of being a part of the land acquisition scam on behalf of Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), surrendered before the inquiry team recently. He was remanded to judicial custody.

On September 22 last, the Lokayukta police had raided the houses of four KAS officers, relating to the reported land acquisition scam in KIADB, running into hundreds of crores of rupees. The investigating team had also raided the houses of a retired KAS officer, T P Muninarayanappa, and a private middleman named Santosh, and seized incriminating documents pertaining to the scam.

Criminal cases had been registered against all the accused before conducting raids. Santosh was arrested on the day of the raid, while Muninarayanappa was nabbed later. Other accused, H S Ramakrishna, G C Anil Kumar, Chikkabettaiah, and N R Nagaraju, were given a week’s time to file their written clarifications relating to their role in the land acquisition scam in Jala revenue division in Bangalore North district. While Nagaraju cooperated with the investigators, the other three had remained elusive since about a month.

The special Lokayukta court had dismissed the bail petition moved by Ramakrishna earlier. He had approached the High Court with a similar petition, but there too, it was dismissed. Thereafter, he surrendered before the investigating team. After preliminary interrogations, Ramrkrishna was produced before the court, and remanded to judicial custody as per the order of the presiding officer, a police officer said.

Anil Kumar and Chikkabettaiah have remained underground since about a month, and efforts to locate them are on.