Bengaluru, Jan. 31: Former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda is often referred to as the “Son of the Soil”. Quite literally. His love for land dates back to the 1960s when he pulled strings to acquire tens of acres of government land by claiming to be a landless farmer and later to transfer the grant land to his kith and kin. Documents made available to this newspaper reveal that Mr Gowda and his family are involved in over 20 such fraudulent transactions.

An official report furnished by the then divisional commissioner of Mysore, Shanthakumari Devaraj, to the state revenue commissioner as far back as on January 17, 1991 had brought out the fact that Mr Gowda had government land sanctioned to him and his family members in Holenarasipur taluk of Hassan district, which was part of Mysore division, by way of “darkhasth” and land grant in spite of the fact that he already owned extensive property. “There are 20 such land transactions,” said the report, which highlights Mr Gowda’s landholdings and further shows that most of the land grants to himself and his family members were made during 1963-61.“It could be seen that most of the land granted to Mr Deve Gowda or purchased by him have been transferred to other members of the joint family in the year 1986-87,” the report states, claiming that “this could be a measure taken to escape the clutches of law as the allegations started surfacing against these illegal grants during this time and to show that he was a landless person.” “Many of these land transfers effected and the mutation entries are also highly objectionable and have not been made properly” the report said. Some of the instances in the Holenarasipur taluk of Hassan district by Mr Gowda and his family members make interesting reading:n Mr Gowda got 10 acres of “darkhasth” land sanctioned to him in Kamenahalli in survey no. 68/1 to himself and got it converted in his name while in the same survey no. 9.18 acres of land in Kamenahalli was sanctioned in favour of Nanjamma bin Subbegowda and the mutation entry is in Mr Gowda’s name.n In Paduvalahippe, 4.39 acres of land in survey no. 43 was allotted in Mr Gowda’s wife Chennamma’s name and transferred in son H.D. Revanna’s name.n As much as 3.36 acres of land in survey No. 71 in Paduvalahippe was sanctioned in son H.D. Kumaraswamy’s name and changed in Mr Revanna’s name which was subsequently transferred from the old survey No. 44.n Another son, H.D. Balakrishna, figures in the sanction of 4 acres of land in survey No. 72 of Paduvalahippe and changed in favour of Mr Revanna, which again was transferred from the old survey no. 44 to Ms Chennamma.n H.D. Ramesh, another son, figures in the sanction of 3.28 acres and 8 acres of land in survey No. 153 in Maragowdanahalli, which has been changed in Mr Revanna’s name.n Mr Gowda’s name also figures in the sanction of 13 guntas of land in Halekote in survey No. 217/4 and Mr Revanna’s son Prajval figures in the purchase and transfer of 1.24 and 4.23 acres of land in Maragowdanahalli in survey No. 150/2 and 150/1 respectively.n Mr Revanna’s wife Bhavani’s name figures in the sanction and transfer of 1.03 acres of land in Paduvalahippe in survey No. 44.n On top of these land deals, official documents also claim that former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had himself purchased 21.20 acres of agricultural land in Ketiganahalli village of Bidadi hobli of Ramanagaram taluk which is in close proximity to the BMIC road project, in survey Nos. 7/1, 55, 54, 8-p9, 8, 8-p3, 7/2, 61/2, 61/1, 59 and 7-p3 between 1986-87, 1987-88 and 1988-89 and also received 21.20 acres agricultural land as gifts from Savithramma, wife of Hanumegowda, which has been registered on 31-08-2004 vide registration no. 1755/2004-05. Incidentally the lands gifted by Ms Savithramma had been sanctioned by the government in the past.n There are allegations that the major portion of the 43 acres and 2 guntas of land held by Mr Kumaraswamy in Ketiganahalli village of Bidadi hobli, including those purchased or gifted to him had been granted to SC/ST and other backward classes, which cannot be sold or transferred under rule 9 of Karnataka Land Grant Rules and subsection 2 of Section 4 of Karnataka SC&ST Act, 1978. Further, since Mr Kumaraswamy is an income tax assessee, he is barred from purchasing agricultural land when his and his family’s annual income from non-agricultural sources exceeds Rs 2 lakh per annum, the official documents said.

R. Jayaprakash