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Land grab: Lokayukta cops name minister in report?

Minister for co-operatives and sugar, H.S. Mahadev Prasad seems be heading for trouble

Mysore: Minister for co-operatives and sugar, H.S. Mahadev Prasad seems be heading for trouble with the Loyukta police on Tuesday submitting a comprehensive 800-page report allegedly holding him guilty in a land scam to the Chamarajanagar Special Lokayukta Court.

Speaking to the Deccan Chronicle, complainant and RTI activist, Nandish who received a copy of the report, said the Lokayukta police had found the minister guilty under section 415 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating and dishonestly) and 425 (mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Mr. Prasad is accused of illegally cornering a Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) site in 1998 at a subsidised rate in Chamarajanagar in violation of the norms. While he claimed in his affidavit that he neither owned a site nor a house, he made no mention about the ancestral house he owned in his Halahalli village, Gundlupet taluk, or his other house in Kuvempunagar, Mysore, according to Mr Nandish.

The case has taken many twists and turns after the RTI activist first approached the Chamarajanagar Lokayukta court in 2012. The court in December 2013 ordered the police to file an FIR and submit a report. But Mr. Prasad approached the high court against its order. When it did not pass any, Mr. Nandish filed a petition asking why the case was not being probed.

The matter took a few more legal twists before the investigation was finally carried out and now the Chamarajanagar Lokayukta court will examine the report before it takes any further decision in the matter. Repeated attempts to contact the minister proved futile.

( Source : dc correspondent )
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