FIRs against Yeddyurappa, Kumaraswamy in denotification case

Bengaluru, Jun 19: The Karnataka Lokayukta today filed FIRs against former chief ministers and BJP and JDS leaders BS Yeddyurappa and HD Kumaraswamy in an alleged illegal land denotification case.

According to RTI documents, Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa have been made, respectively, the number one and number two accused in the case. Both former chief ministers are accused of denotifying a prime plot to benefit Kumaraswamy's relative.

The CID had held a preliminary inquiry on the findings of a Comptroller and Auditor General of India report of 2012 on land denotification carried out by the successive governments from 2007-12 and had recently submitted its report to the Lokayukta.

The report said the accused have prima facie played a stellar role in denotifying huge tracts of land, causing a financial loss to the exchequer, Lokayukta said. The CAG had made scathing remarks against the incumbent chief ministers between 2007 to 2012 who disregarded the well- defined law that once the land is in possession it could not be denotified.

The denotification of 610 acres and 16.5 acres of land referred to in the CAG report were ordered when Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa were the chief ministers and in between during a period of Governor's rule.

PTI