The Lokayukta police on Tuesday submitted a chargesheet to the Lokayuka court in a case pertaining to alleged illegal conversion of land in Arakere near Bannerghatta. The chargesheet names IAS officers Subir Hari Singh, Bharat Lal Meena, Ramegowda and Veerabhadraiah. The police filed the chargesheet after conducting the investigation into a compliant filed by former councillor of Hulimavu, C. Lakshminarayana.
The police have filed charges against 12 people and will file chargesheet against six others after obtaining sanction from authorities concerned. The investigating officer, Lokayukta SP P.K. Shivashankar, submitted more than 6,000 pages of documents with the report itself running into more than 300 pages. Charges have been filed against J. Bhupesh Reddy and J. Vijay Reddy of SJR Builders, landowners M Ramesh and his sons Satish and Ravi, General Manager of Stumpp, Schuele and Somappa Ltd Shivanna, then Assistant Commissioner Krishnan, Tahsildar Narayana, Revenue Inspector Kodigowda, Town Planning Member Tirakana Gowda and Superintendent at Land Acquisition office Sriramaiah.
Though charges have been proved against the four IAS officers and Shivram of the Land Acquisition Office and Deputy Director of Town Planning S.M. Hegde, the charges will be filed against them after obtaining sanction. However, no charges have been filed against IAS officer Siddaiah as he approved the plan based on the nod given by his predecessor and did not have any knowledge of the history of the land conversion, the Lokayukta police said.
Mr Subir Hari Singh and Mr Meena have been accused of not taking any action against landowners and builders when it was brought to their notice. The two officers had been told that the builders had fabricated the documents on land use and agreements. Instead of taking action, they wrote to the government to release the landowners from the conditions imposed during denotification.