FIR against HD Kumaraswamy for denotifying govt land

The Lokayukta police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against former chief minister and JD(S) state president HD Kumaraswamy and his former cabinet colleague C Chennigappa on charges of illegally denotifying a piece of land in Arkavathy Layout.

Based on a complaint filed by MS Mahadevaswamy, the Lokayukta court on January 2 ordered an investigation in the matter. In his complaint, Mahadevaswamy alleged that HDK, the then chief minister, denotified survey number 84/1 (of 3.8 acres) at Thanisandra in October 2007, which was under acquisition for Arkavathy Layout.

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had reportedly marked out 58 sites there and allotted 38. But on the recommendation of Chennigappa, the then forest minister, HDK passed de-notification orders for the entire survey number 84/1. This caused a huge loss to the state exchequer, the complainant claimed.

The complaint listed all the land owners as accused in the case. The land was notified and acquired by the BDA, and the land owners were paid compensation.

This is the second case being investigated by Lokayukta sleuths against Kumaraswamy. He was earlier charged—along with former chief minister and current foreign minister SM Krishna and former chief minister Dharam Singh—for granting and renewing mining licences illegally.