A government agency’s inquiry report that indicted forest minister CP Yogeshwar of a slew of crimes has been gathering dust since July last year.
A government agency’s inquiry report that indicted forest minister CP Yogeshwar of a slew of crimes has been gathering dust since July last year.
The serious fraud investigation office (SFIO), the investigative wing of the Union ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), submitted a report to the ministry after looking into the affairs of Megacity Developers and Builders Ltd (MDBL), a company headed by Yogeshwar. The ministry is yet to act on the report. When DNA contacted corporate affairs minister M Veerappa Moily to seek his opinion on the issue, he refused to comment.
The company launched Vajragiri Township on Mysore Highway in 1995. It introduced a scheme wherein people could pay in 66 instalments to buy a plot in the township. The SFIO’s inquiry report said that the company, from 1995 to 2001, gave wrong information to people, collected more than `71 crore from more than 9,000 people and misused the funds. The company has a capital investment of `1.99 crore, but the company directors could not tell the source of the money.
Yogeshwar had bought agricultural land, stating on record that he would use it for residential purpose. However, he got the land transferred to his real estate company, violating the Karnataka Land Reforms Act.
Forgery
MDBL claimed it had signed 450 agreements with farmers to procure land around the Mysore-Bangalore highway. The inquiry team could find only 62 agreements. Of them, only two farmers replied when the team tried to get in touch with them. Three of the 62 farmers said they never got money from Yogeshwar’s company.
Eighteen of these agreements turned out to be fake. In some cases, the survey number of the land did not exist. In the remaining sale agreements, landowners were not alive when the deed was executed. Also, the investigation found that Yogeshwar forged documents to get the director identification number. The company’s directors—Yogeshwar, his brother CP Gangadhareshwar, wife Manju Kumari and brother-in-law Mahadevaiah—were charged with not cooperating with the inquiry team.
The MDBL scam came to light after a group of aggrieved people filed a complaint with Ulsoorgate police in March 2010.
Considering the gravity of the case, it was transferred to the CID, whose investigation indicted Yogeshwar of forgery. As the case involved shares and business-related aspects, the MCA took charge and handed it over to SFIO, which upheld the findings of the CID.
When DNA contacted Yogeshwar, he labelled the whole issue as political vendetta, before digressing on how Congress’s DK Shivakumar is guilty of illegal mining of granite in Kanakapura.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}