Deletion of IT park land: Probe ordered against BSY, Cong minister

The Lokayukta Special Court on Wednesday directed an investigation into the roles played by R V Deshpande, the Industries minister in 2001 and  B S Yeddyurappa, the deputy chief minister in 2006, in illegal deletion of land notified for an IT Park in and around Bellandur and Devarabisanahalli.

Deshpande is the Minister for Tourism and Higher Education in the present Congress government while B S Yeddyurappa is now the national vice-president of BJP. The court also directed the Lokayukta police to register an FIR and submit the investigation report by April 18.

The State Government had declared the land between Whitefield and Electronic City as IT Corridor during 2000-01 for the development of IT and IT-enabled services. The Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) issued notification in respect of around 500 acres and came out with a final notification in respect of only 434 acres including prime land adjacent to the Ring Road  - between Sarjapur Road and Marathahalli - in the villages of Bellandur, Devarabisanahalli, Kadabisanahalli and Kariammana Agrahara.

Private complaint

A person by nameVasudeva Reddy had filed a private complaint in the Lokayukta Special Court in 2013 stating that soon after demarcation of the IT corridor limits, three real estate companies privately purchased lands.

Since their income was more than Rs two lakh per annum, revenue authorities took cognisance of the violation and forfeited the land under various orders. However, the firms were re-allotted the same lands after they approached the authorities on the pretext of establishing IT industries.

The real estate promoters named by the complainant are: Mithilesh Kumar Tripathi, Santosh Kumar Garg, Satish Garg, Kusum Lata Garg, Devidas Garg, Anita Garg, Rakesh Kumar Garg and Kupendra Reddy.

“These promoters in the names of Vikas Telecom, Supreme Build Cap Pvt Ltd and Royale Fragrance Pvt Ltd struck an unholy alliance with the KIADB to get back the forfeited lands. They placed IT projects before the State Level Single Window Agency, which were blindly accepted. Thus, Vikas Telecom was allotted an extent of 106.25 acres, Supreme Build Cap was allotted 14 acres of land and Royal Fragrance Pvt. Ltd allotted 29 acres of land,'' the complaint stated.

Lands sold for profit

These firms sold the allotted lands to real estate developers for a whopping price. The complainant has submitted one such sale agreement, executed by Supreme Build Cap for 1.70 acres of land in Devarabisanahalli to RJT Hotels Pvt. Ltd for a sale consideration of Rs 70 crore.

After final notification, select lands were deleted at the instance of Deshpande, claimed the complainant. Several such lands near Bellandur were denotified between February 2004 and June 2006. The complainant stated that none of these lands was eligible to be excluded from acquisition.  ‘Land diverted for residential purpose’

According to the complaint, Yeddyurappa ordered de-notification of four acres 30 guntas in survey number 49 in Devarabisanahalli and survey numbers 10, 18, 46/1 in Bellandur. The complainant claims that IT giant Infosys withdrew from the project after series of reckless de-notification of lands within the area allotted to it.

Immediately after the deletion, the lands were diverted for residential purpose. The complaint states that Deshpande has business stakes in real estate firms which have constructed huge apartments on these lands.