Bangalore: Governor H R Bhardwaj on Wednesday granted sanction to the Lokayukta police to file a charge sheet against former IT and BT minister Katta Subramanya Naidu in a case relating to grabbing of KIADB land.
“The governnor granted sanction on Wednesday. We will make necessary preparations and file a charge sheet against Katta Subramanya Naidu within a week under the Prevention of Corruption Act,” Lokayukta Justice (retd) N Santosh Hegde said.
The Lokayukta police submitted a proposal to Bhardwaj on July 4 seeking sanction to file a charge sheet against Naidu in a KIADB land scam. Along with the application, the police submitted a 200-page final report besides 25,000 pages related to evidence gathered against him. The police decided to seek the governor’s sanction as Naidu was a minister when the case was registered against him.
“Our investigating officers  collected the details and thorougly probed the matter before submitting the proposal to the governor,” Hegde said. Lokayukta sources expressed confidence that the charge sheet will stand the test of law.
Case background
The KIADB had acquired land near Bagalur and Bangalore International Airport in Devanahalli to establish special economic zones. Lokayukta sleuths found out that land was purchased by the Naidu family and then sold to the KIADB. The KIADB in turn sold the land to the Naidu family to set up a software park. Katta Subramanya Naidu allegedly received compensation money and also bagged the land at a cheaper price.
After Itaska, a software company, filed an application for a software tech park project, Katta’s son Jagadish, allegedly moved it to the Karnataka Udyog Mitra which allotted the land. Katta Subramanya ignored the irregularities, ordered presentation of the application before the state high-level committee headed by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and then allegedly got the application approved by various departments illegally.
KIADB signed an MoU with Itaska Software in May 2007 to acquire the land at Bandikodigehalli village. Katta Subramanya took the help of family members and associates to convince the farmers to donate land.
Jagadish allegedly received illegal gratification of Rs 87 crore which was paid to a benami company floated by Katta Subramanya and his son.
Subsequently, the police registered a criminal case against Katta Subramanya on December 2, 2010 on the charge of receiving Rs 87 crore bribe to sanction 325 acres to a private software company.
Besides Katta Subramanya and Jagadish, cases were registered against S V Srinivas, managing director of Itaska, their associates Jaggaiah, Venkatiah, Srinivasmurthy, Basavapoornaiah, Shivananda, as well some KIADB and state government officials.