Supporters of the tainted corporator rough up photojournalists; Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu says sorry for the attack on the media.
The Lokayukta will oppose Vasanthnagar corporator Katta Jagadish Naidu’s bail plea when it comes up before a city court on Monday.
The presiding officer of the 23rd ACMM court, Chandrashekar B Hipparagi, accepted the BJP corporator’s bail application on Friday, and directed the Lokayukta to file objections, before posting the plea to October 4 for hearing.
Lokayukta justice N Santosh Hegde said that the watchdog would oppose the granting of bail to Jagadish, son of state minister for IT and BT Katta Subramanya Naidu. The accused has been remanded in judicial custody till October 12.
The Lokayukta wanted to interrogate the corporator, who was arrested for allegedly bribing a witness in the multi-crore Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) land scam.
Speaking to reporters, justice Hegde said the witness, Ramanjanappa, had approached the Lokayukta saying he had been receiving threats since September 28. The Lokayukta police armed the witness, who was also a victim of the land scam, with audio and visual recording devices and sent him to Jagadish.
Ramanjanappa met Jagadish at the Gandhinagar office of Itaska, a software firm owned by the latter. Both them went to a restaurant for lunch. Jagadish allegedly threatened to harm the witness if he went to the Lokayukta, and also offered him Rs1 lakh to remain silent.
When Ramanjanappa agreed to the offer, he was sent to the minister’s residence in Sadashivanagar. While a man, Kumar, was handing over the money, Lokayukta sleuths stepped in. Jagadish was also arrested and produced before the magistrate at 2 am on Friday. The magistrate remanded him to judicial custody.
Supporters of the tainted corporator, meanwhile, roughed up photojournalists and TV crew in a bid to prevent them from getting the visuals of Jagadish. The mediapersons were manhandled, while the accused was brought out of the magistrate’s house.
Two cameramen of local television channels sustained minor injuries in the melee.
Following the attack, TV crew woke up home minister R Ashoka and apprised him of the assault. He promised the crew that he would take up the matter with the chief minister. “I am sorry that such a thing has occurred. Nobody should try and stop reporters from doing their job,” Ashoka said.
The Bangalore unit of the Youth Congress petitioned the city police commissioner, requesting him to arrest the miscreants who had attacked the media. “We have also requested the election commission to suspend the corporator immediately,” president of the Bangalore City Youth Congress Committee DA Pramod Shankar said.
Mayor SK Nataraj, however, said that the court would decide on the bribing charges slapped against Jagadish. “I have not received the Lokayukta report. Hence I cannot say anything,” he said.
The Lokayukta said the land scam came to light after a police officer, identified only as Nagaraj, provided the details.
The scam involves 3,000 acres of government-owned land in Devanahalli. While acquiring the land for setting up aerospace and IT parks, the KIADB paid compensation to undeserving private parties. The scam has been going on since 2005.
Katta’s family had been awarded 325 acres on which they set up Itaska. They were allegedly compensated for the same piece of land. The compensation paid to private parties was in the range of Rs65 lakh to Rs75 lakh an acre.
The Lokayukta said that in several instances, more than one person had been compensated for the same piece of land. As many as five cases of cheating and forgery have been so far filed in connection with the scam.
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