Law minister in soup over land denotification

Barely few months after getting a clean chit in a G category site case, Law minister S Suresh Kumar is now facing a land denotification case.

A case was filed on Saturday at Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) by one Dinesh Kallalli against Suresh Kumar, former housing minister M Krishnaiah Setty and senior IAS officer VP Baligar for illegally denotifying 4.2 acres of land at Laggere, meant for providing housing for the slum dwellers.

The BMTF has registered the case under Section 13(1) and 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act - 1988 and 157 of the CrPC.

According to the complaint, 4.5 acres of land in survey number 9/2, which belonged to K Gopinath, was notified for building houses for the slum dewellers in the year 1982. The land acquisition process was completed in 2003 and six years later the Karnataka Slum Development Board (KSDB) got possession and started constructing houses.

However, the then Yeddyurappa government decided to denotify the land. While the KSDB raised it objection, the complainant alleged that the government decided to go ahead with denotification to help Gopinath, a relative of RSS member and former MLC K Narahari.

The complainant also claimed that law secretary has advised the Law minister against it, but Suresh Kumar had ignored him and instead acted as per advice of the Accountant General (AG).
When contacted, Suresh Kumar said that his reaction to the allegation will be made available after seeing the complaint copy and the FIR. “Whatever recommendation I have given is based on the opinion of AG,” he said.