This is bigger than the 2G spectrum scam, says minority panel head in the state.
Although the Karnataka State Wakf Board is the richest organisation in the state with over Rs4 lakh crore worth property, 50% of it has been gobbled up by some powerful politicians and Wakf board members with the help of relators, a state minority commission report submitted to the chief minister says.
The 7,500-page report in 11 volumes, which will be tabled before the house, contains names of powerful politicians, said Anwar Manippady, chairman of the commission. The commission has requested the chief minister, who holds Wakf ministry portfolio, to retrieve the property and initiate tough action against the people involved in the fraud.
The Wakf board has over 54,000 acres of registered property, of which 40% to 50% has been misused.
“This is bigger than the 2G spectrum scam,” Manippady said. This is how they operated: Property was identified by realtors with the help of Wakf board members. The GPA or NOC was then executed in their names and the land was sold after converting them into commercial property.
Once, kings, rulers and zamindars had donated the property for the welfare of poor people. But it was gobbled up by powerful politicians and wakf board members, Manippady said.
The scam was exposed in November 2011, when members of the minority commission, during a routine inspection of Bidar, received complaints about illegal encroachments.
Apart from Bidar, they received complaints from Bangalore, Mysore and Gulbarga. An inquiry revealed large-scale land fraud involving 3,786 acres of properties in Bidar district alone. The commission set up an inquiry and found the involvement of several wakf members. A detailed report was sent to the chief secretary seeking action against the guilty.
“We’ve requested the government to retrieve the encroached properties detailed in the report and take penal action against the persons involved,” he said. Also, trouble is brewing for the Wakf board chairman as the ninth fast track rejected his anticipatory bail application on Monday.
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