Katta Subramanya Naidu’s head on the block; fears of arrest too in the air

The ghost of land scams in Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) has returned to haunt IT/BT minister Katta Subramanya Naidu and his son Katta Jagadish on Thursday. Lokayukta justice N Santosh Hegde put his foot down and filed a first information report (FIR) against Katta and Jagadish, causing severe embarrassment to chief minister BS Yeddyurappa.

According to sources, Katta and his son are trying to secure anticipatory bail amid reports of their impending arrest on Friday.
The FIR has been filed under Indian Penal Code sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (forgery) and 471 (using forged document or electronic record as genuine one).

The scam is showing all signs of scalping Katta’s head even as Yeddyurappa and party president KS Eshwarappa held a meeting with Katta late on Thursday night to convince him to quit on his own and spare the BJP government any further embarrassment over the issue of fighting corruption.

Katta’s resignation is expected to be announced any moment.
Katta, if forced to quit, will join the infamous club of Krishnaiah Shetty, Haratalu Halappa and Ramachandra Gowda who were forced to quit Yeddyurappa’s cabinet due to their respective dubious acts. The Lokayukta FIR deals with cases under provisions of prevention of corruption act against Katta and Jagadish.

The Lokayukta police conducted raids on the companies floated by the father-son duo, including the Itaska Software Private Limited.

Besides Katta and Jagadish, cases have also been registered against SV Srinivas, managing director of Itaska, their associates Jaggaiah, Venkatiah, Srinivasmurthy, Basava-poornaiah, Shivananda, director, Karnataka Udyoga Mitra, Vijay Shankar , special deputy commissioner (DC) Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), and Muninarayanappa, special land acquisition officer of KIADB.

The KIADB acquired land around Bagalur and Bangalore International Airport in Devanahalli to set up special economic zones (SEZs). The Lokayukta smelt a rat after it found that the lands were purchased by the minister and his henchmen and then sold to KIADB.

The KIADB then sold the land back to the minister and his son to set up the software park. The minister thus got money through compensation he had obtained from KIADB and then the land for a cheaper price, the FIR stated. In 2006, Itaska had filed an application for a software tech park project. The application was processed during Katta’s tenure as industries minister.

The application was moved by Jagadish to the Karnataka Udyog Mitra which subsequently granted the required extent of land to the applicant. The minister is alleged to have intentionally overlooked the irregularities in the application and then ordered its presentation before the state high-level committee headed by chief minister Yeddyurappa.

The application was approved and then allegedly routed through a series of irregular procedures. The application was processed through various wings of industries department and by Katta himself.

In May 2007, the acquisition of land in Bandikodigehalli village was initiated and an MOU between Itaska Software and KIADB for allotment of land was entered into. To obtain the consent of farmers the minister deployed several of his family members and associates, and Katta Jagadish received illegal gratification of `87 crore which was paid to a benami company floated by Katta and his son.

Additional director general of police (Lokayukta) Rupak Kumar Dutta said: “The premises of United Telecom Company, Itaska Software and Sowbhagya Petrol Bunk (where office of Indu Builders and Developers is located) were raided and incriminating documents seized.”

Refusing to comment on the charge sheet, Katta merely said, “I have not taken any decision on my resignation.”