A trusted aide of chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, Naidu dismissed allegations of the land scam made out against him as "baseless" and said he resigned on moral grounds.
In the first political casualty of the land scam charges haunting the BJP government in Karnataka, IT and BT minister Katta Subramanya Naidu resigned today, a day after the Lokayukta filed an FIR against him over a land deal.
A trusted aide of chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, Naidu dismissed allegations of the land scam made out against him as "baseless" and said he resigned on moral grounds.
Naidu, whose resignation was accepted by governor HR Bhardwaj, said he did not want to embarrass the government and his party after an FIR was filed against him.
"I have done no wrong. I have faith in the judiciary. I will get justice," Naidu told reporters, hours after Yeddyurappa made a brief announcement about his exit and forwarded the resignation letter to the governor.
"To facilitate an impartial probe by the lok ayukta, Katta Subramanya Naidu has submitted his resignation today," said Yeddyurappa, who himself faced land scam charges but managed to stay on after the party top brass gave him a reprieve.
The lok ayukta had yesterday registered an FIR against Naidu and nine others after it found evidence in the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) land scam.
The FIR points to irregularities in allotment of 385 acres to ITASCA Software Company, floated by an aide of Naidu.
For allotment of land and obtaining consent of farmers, most of whom were family members and associates of Naidu and his son Jagadish, illegal gratification of Rs 87 crore was allegedly paid to a benami company of Naidu and Jagadish, it said.
Lok ayukta Santosh Hegde said yesterday that charges such as forgery, cheating, benami transactions, creating false documents, creating fictitious firms, among others, have been made out against the accused in the FIR.
A second FIR was filed yesterday against Naidu's son who is facing allegations of bribing a witness in a case involving securing of compensation for KIADB land acquired from him.
Katta Jagadish, arrested by Lokayukta police in September, is now on bail and the high court had stayed the first FIR filed against him.
Naidu said Congress and JD(S) leaders had no right to demand his resignation and asked them to reflect on the charges they themselves faced.
He expressed confidence that his son Jagadish would also come out clean.
The first-ever BJP government in the south has come under the shadow of alleged land scams with the Opposition targetting Yeddyurappa accusing him of denotifying land and allotting prime urban plots to his family members.
Yeddyurappa's kin have, however, surrendered the land and government has ordered a judicial probe into the land scams alleged to have taken place during the rule of BJP as well as those of his predecessors over a 16-year period.
Naidu is the third minister to quit after H Halappa, who resigned on a rape charge, and R Ramachandra Gowda over an alleged recruitment scam in Mysore and Hassan medical colleges.
Naidu's exit reduces the Yeddyurappa ministry's strength to 27, with seven vacancies.
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