Bangalore:
Barely a fortnight after he was released from jail in two land scam cases, the Lokayukta Court today ordered a probe into a private complaint against former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, Housing Minister V Somanna and two others, alleging irregularities in denotification of land in the state capital.
Lokayukta Court Judge N K Sudhindra Rao asked the Superintendent of Police, Lokayukta Bangalore Urban, to conduct a probe under the relevant section of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and submit his report on December 26.
In the fresh complaint, Ravi Krishnareddy, a software engineer, alleged that Mr Yeddyurappa denotified 22
guntas (one
gunta is about 1,086 square feet) of land in Nagadevanahalli in the city in 2009 that was bought by an education trust owned by Somanna's wife Shailaja in violation of rules.
The land had already been acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in 1998, the complainant has submitted, adding that a building constructed by the trust on it is "illegal" as it had not been accorded permission.
Shailaja and Lingaraju, the erstwhile land owner, are the two other accused named in the complaint.
There are five different cases that accuse Mr Yeddyurappa of land scams.
On October 15, he was arrested for two cases that involved him using his office as Chief Minister to make prime property available to his children and their spouses at rates that were much below the market value.
A Bangalore court granted him bail in the first of these cases on November 3. He walked out of jail on November 8, after securing bail in the second case.
The former chief minister has secured anticipatory bail in two other cases and the process in the fifth is yet to begin.
In July, after a report on illegal mining indicted him, Mr Yeddyurappa was asked by his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to step down as the head of its first government in the South.
(With PTI inputs)