Minister Profited From Bengaluru's Arkhavathy Land Scam, Alleges Activist

Bengaluru: Karnataka Minister M R Seetharam had got a slice of the 541 acres of land in Bengaluru, which the state's Congress government allegedly denotified - or cancelled the purchase of -- illegally in 2013, an activist has told the commission investigating the issue.

The land was meant for the much-awaited Arkavathy project -- a housing project by the Bangalore Development Authority for which at least 3,000 people have been waiting for over a decade.

Activists claim Mr Seetharam, minister for planning and statistics, had illegally bought the 30,000 sq ft land after preliminary notification in 2003, violating rules. It is now part of a mega apartment project by his real estate company.

The land was denotified in 2013 after the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah came to power in the state. With Chief Minister Siddaramaiah being accused of receiving huge kickbacks after the 2013 denotification, the government had ordered a commission of Inquiry under Justice HS Kempanna.

Advocate Dore Raju, who appeared before the Kempanna Commission today, said "This is a bogus denotification". He said it had been achieved by a "fraudulent misrepresentation" by the applicants before officers concerned and is meant to "help the persons in the power".

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The minister contends that the land was wrongly made part of the housing project and that due process of law was followed while denotifying.

"In the middle of 20 acres, they have tried to acquire these 30,000 square feet. So this was really a classic case of faulty acquisition," Mr Seetharam said. The BDA, he said, had to remove these three areas from the list of acquisition according to the directions of the High Court and Supreme Court.

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