Bangalore, Aug 30 (IANS): The Lokayukta court here Tuesday ordered former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and his wife and lawmaker H.D.Anita to appear before it Sep 5 in a case related to renewal of mining lease and allotment of residential site by a housing society.
Rejecting the anticipatory bail applications of the duo, Additional City Civil Court and Sessions Judge N.K Sudindhra Rao posted the case for hearing Sep 5 and told their counsel Hazmath Basha to present them in the court in response to the summons he issued Aug 8.
Rao also functions as special Lokayukta (ombudsman) court for speedy trial of graft cases.
Though the trial court granted exemption for both of them from appearance Tuesday on health grounds, the judge declined to give any relief for Sep 5 hearing as the Karnataka High Court also dismissed their anticipatory bail applications later in the day.
The summons was issued on a complaint by city-based advocate Vinod Kumar who alleged that Kumaraswamy renewed the mining lease of Jantakkal Enterprises Ltd against rules and illegally allotted land to a housing society, which in return gave his wife Anita a residential site in Bangalore.
Kumaraswamy was chief minister of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government in the state from February 2006 to October 2007.
Anita represents the Madhugiri assembly constituency in Tumkur district, about 70 km from Bangalore.
Kumaraswamy, who is the regional party's state unit president, is a member of the Lok Sabha from Ramanagara, about 60 km from Bangalore.
The complaint was based on the final investigative report submitted by former Lokayukta Justice (retd) N. Santosh Hegde to the state government July 27 on the multi-crore mining scam.
The report named Kumaraswamy for granting lease to two mining firms in violation of norms.
The complaint also claimed that Kumaraswamy had given officials just two hours to grant the lease to the mining firm.
The ex-chief minister is alleged to have allotted 70 acres to Vishwabharathi Housing Cooperative Society in Bangalore. The society in return favoured his wife Anita with a 100ft x 150ft residential plot.
In a related development, Justice Keshavanarayan of the Karnataka High Court rejected Kumaraswamy's application seeking stay on proceedings in the Lokayukta court.