Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Sep 5: Even though the previous advocate general of the government had recommended to set in motion legal processes against B Sriramulu, who faces land grabbing allegation in Ballari, it is said that the Lokayukta police, who have completed their investigation, are hesitating in moving ahead with legal process.

G Krishnamurthy from Tilak Nagar, Ballari, had filed a private complaint in the chief district and sessions court in 2013, accusing minister Sriramulu of grabbing land. Judge of the court, D Vishweshwar Bhat, who heard the complaint, had handed over the case for Lokayukta investigation.

Sriramulu has been accused of transferring 57 acres of land in survey No. 601 A next to TB sanatorium in Kaul Bazar Ballari by creating fake documents. The then deputy commissioner of Ballari, Shivappa, sub-divisonal officer, Venkatesh and tahsildar, Shashidhar Bagali, facilitated this transfer, it is said. This land was bought by Parameshwar Reddy, father-in-law of Janardhan Reddy which was gifted to daughter, Aruna. This land was later registered in the name of Sriramulu notwithstanding the fact that Krishnamurthy and others had house sites in the land. Allegedly the land was forcibly taken away from the people having sites in it, Krishnamurthy had complained.

It is said that even after six years since the court ordered them to investigation the case, Lokayukta police are following go slow policy in the case and have not concluded the probe in its entirety. Sources claim that the Lokayukta police have been whiling away time by unnecessarily taking up the matter with the office of the speaker of the assembly seeking permission to proceed against Sriramulu.

The then advocate general Uday Holla, had given his opinion on June 27 this year that there is no need to seek speaker's permission to act against Sriramulu, even though he happens to be a member of the assembly. He also had cited certain verdicts of the Supreme Court to drive home this point. He had given similar opinion in September 2018 and the secretariat of the assembly speaker had forwarded it to the Lokayukta additional director general of police. The inaction on the part of the Lokayukta, some claim, is an effort to shield the accused through backdoor tactics.