Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Sep 6: The special court for people's representatives here has served summons to former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, and 18 others after registering criminal case against them. Provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, criminal breach of trust, cheating, violation of land transfer rules, use of forged documents etc have been invoked in the complaint. The concerned have been instructed to be personally present in the court on October 4.

M Mahadevaswamy from Santhemaranahallii in Chamarajanagar district had filed complaint against Kumaraswamy and others. He had alleged that the land in Halage Vaderahalli near Banashankari here, which was acquired by Bangalore Development Authority for making house sites, was illegally denotified by Kumaraswamy during October 2007, just a week before he resigned as chief minister of the state. He pointed out that the land was sold to builders the same day on which denotification order was passed, and contended that this act had resulted in loss of Rs 56.6 crore to the exchequer.

The complaint had earlier been investigated by the Lokayukta and it had filed B closure report, citing lack of evidence. Judge of the court Ramachandra D Huddar, had rejected the closure report on July 20 this year and ordered for detailed probe again, duly noting that the sections of law mentioned in the report were of very serious nature. He had also asked the complainant to personally record his submissions in the court.

The complainant had also alleged forgery of certain documents in the case. It would be interesting to see what arguments Kumaraswamy will present in his defence in the court and how does the court go about the charges levelled against him and 18 others.