Land grabbing accusations haunt R Ashok

Social activist lodged a complaint against home and transport minister accusing him of using clout to register govt acquired land in his name

Social activist lodged a complaint against home and transport minister accusing him of using clout to register govt acquired land in his name

After Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, it is now Home and Transport Minister R Ashok's turn to be booked on charges of misusing power to grab government land. M Manjunath, a social activist who has registered a private complaint before the court said, "Through the Right To Information (RTI) Act I found out that men in power were misusing these powers for illegal monetary gain. In order to ensure that the common man is not affected, I filed the complaint seeking legal action against him at the earliest."


Abusing power? Manjunath, in his complaint, has accused R Ashok
and 12 other land owners of Lottegollahalli who had colluded and caused
a total of Rs 26 crore loss to the state exchequer. File pic

On Thursday, the court recorded Manjunath's complaint, in which he accuses Ashok of illegally acquiring land that was already acquired by the government. The complaint also accused 12 landowners of Lottegollahalli of causing a loss of Rs 26 crore to the state exchequer.

The alleged scam
According to the complaint, in 1978 the BDA acquired property 10/1 and 10/11F of Lottegollahalli for the development of Raj Mahal Vilas Layout through formation of 12 owners. Although the said property was in possession of BDA after it was acquired, Ashok in 2003 and 2007 had got the property registered in his name.

Later in 2009, when Ashok came into power, using his status, he had 9 and 14 guntas denotified. Manjunath accused the minister of misusing his powers and sought legal action against him at the earliest. The court after recording the complaint posted for further hearing on May 17, despite the counsel completing his arguments.

While Ashok was personally unavailable for comment, sources in his office claimed that they were unaware of the issue.