29 July,2009 09:20 AM IST | | B V Shiva Shankar
A defunct watch company owned the land that is now the subject of the grand Iskon-vs-politician controversy. MiD DAY digs up the past to bring you startling details about the property
The land at the centre of the Iskcon row once belonged to a discredited watch company.
Shankar Hegde, who had acquired the land from Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), wound up the company in the 1980s after years of defaulting on loan repayments.
Karnataka State Finance Corporation (KSFC), which had loaned the company about Rs 5 crore, confiscated the property.
When the land fell vacant, Congress working president D Ku00a0 Shivakumar and Shankar Hegde's daughter Rashmi Gopi-Hegde reportedly tried to arrive at some arrangement to keep the land among themselves. Interestingly, Shankara Foundation, run by Rashmi, works from land that was part of the property of Hegde & Goley. Rashmi is a dancer.
Out of 40 acres the KIADB granted, the company had used 27 for the industry and set aside the rest for roads.
When KSFC decided to confiscate the property, it could not do anything to seize land allocated for infrastructure.
When it looked like he couldn't acquire the land, Shivakumar, a powerful minister in S M Krishna's cabinet, allegedly threatened the foundation the government would act. "He tried to grab the property saying it was attached to the KSFC," said a source. "But other ministers helped the foundation."
KURUKSHETRA: Iskon temple in Bangalore. The trust running it is at loggerheads with politician D K Shivakumar (top left). |
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