Bangalore: Karnataka IT Minister Quits Over Land Scam
Bangalore, Dec 3 (IANS): Karnataka IT Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu Friday resigned following a police complaint against him in a multicrore land deal, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa announced.
"I have accepted his resignation and forwarded it to governor (H.R. Bhardwaj) for acceptance," Yeddyurappa told reporters here. He is the fourth minister of the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka to quit since it took office in May 2008.
Earlier state Lokayukta had filed a case against the minister in the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board land scam.
“Our staff have collected evidence to prove the minister’s involvement in the scam. We have documents to establish that the minister got huge sums for sanctioning the land. Hence, we decided to register a criminal case against him,” said Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde. An FIR against the minister and some members of his family for their alleged involvement in the KIADB land scam was filed earlier.
It is not clear whether Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who succeeded in saving his chair in the face of serious corruption charges, will now drop the tainted minister whose corporator-son Jagadish is also an accused in the land scam case.
Following his return from New Delhi, Yeddyurappa maintained a stoic silence over the Lokayukta’s action, only saying “no comments”. Soon after the news about the Lokayukta filing the FIR spread, Yeddyurappa held a protracted meeting with State BJP president K S Eshwarappa, among others.
However, no decision as to what the chief minister should be doing at this stage was taken. Naidu remained incommunicado to the media, while the chief minister also chose not to react.
When contacted, Eshwarappa said the matter would be discussed with the party’s central leaders who are meeting informally in Nagpur on Friday. In the FIR filed by Lokayukta sleuths against 11 people, including the Naidus, some of their associates and a few KIADB officials, the charges range from cheating and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as those under specific sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The FIR suggests that the case against Naidu and his son is serious because it is based on inquiries by Lokayukta detectives who found that “illegal gratification of Rs 87 crore was paid to a benami company of Katta Subramanya Naidu and Katta Jagadish”.
As the Lokayukta went public with the FIR, the Opposition, which had relentlessly attacked Yeddyurappa earlier, appeared to have adopted a wait-and-watch policy before making any concerted effort to demand Naidu and Jagadish’s arrest.
The cases were registered under Sections 7, 8, 12, 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and under Sections 419, 420, 468 and 471 read with Section 120(B) of the IPC.
Nine others who figure in the FIR are S V Srinivas, Jaggaiah, Venkaiah, Srinivasmurthy, Basavapoornaiah, Karnataka Udyog Mitra Director Shivananda, KIADB Special Deputy Commissioner Vijay Shankar, KIADB Special Land Acquisition Officer Muninarayanappa, other government officials and private persons.
The Lokayukta investigation revealed that Subramanya Naidu and Jagadish threw all norms to the winds at every step and paid huge sums as illegal gratification to a benami company. The Industries and KIADB officials also joined hands in all irregularities masterminded by the father and son.
The Lokayukta probe revealed that ITASCA Software Company submitted an application to set up an IT and ITES Special Economic Zone project at Bandikodigehalli in August 2006. Jagadish is alleged to have facilitated the application from Karnataka Udyoga Mitra.
After the application was submitted Subramanya Naidu allegedly overlooked irregularities in it, faulty processing and other weaknesses. Despite these inadequacies, the minister ordered the application’s presentation before the State Head Level Committee headed by the then chief minister.
The government approved the application and then piloted it through a series of irregular processes. The father and son duo processed the application through various wings of the Industries Department. The land acquisition process for the project was initiated in May 2007 and a MoU was signed between ITASCA Software Company and KIADB for allotment of land.
Subsequent investigations found that “for these and for obtaining the consent of farmers, a majority of whom were family members and associates of Subramanya Naidu”, Rs 87 crore was paid into the bank account of a shell company floated by the minister and his son.
According to Lokayukta officials, the Industries Department and KIADB officials committed criminal misconduct and various acts of forgery and fabrication of documents.
The FIR names the officials of ITASCA and United Telecom Company, who paid an undisclosed amount of money to Indu Builders and Developers, the Lokayukta officers said.
The sleuths seized crucial documents after a search at the premises of United Telecom Company, ITASCA and Sowbhagya Petrol Bunk where Indu Builders and Developers is supposed to have been located.