Bangalore: A complaint has been lodged with the Lokayukta court against a total of 102 persons including four former chief ministers on the charges of illegally acquiring farmers lands on the Bangalore-Mysore Express Highway Project of NICE.
The former CMs who have been named accused are HD Deve Gowda, SM Krishna, BS Yeddyurappa, Dharam Singh, Congress leader Siddaramaiah.The petitioner is TJ Abraham, social activist. A total of 57 IAS officials have also been named accused.
In his submission, Abraham stated that during Deve Gowda’s chief ministership the government entered into a memorandum of understanding with a consortium consisting of Ashok Kheny and Baba Kalyani among others for the construction of a highway from Bangalore to Mysore in 1995, without ever ascertaining the financial capability. The consortium stated that it would invest a sum of Rs 522 crore and raise the remaining amount of more than Rs 1,000 crore through loans with no financial investment at all from the government.
Abraham alleged that the consortium was unable to pay Rs 10 crore to the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) and promptly mortgaged the government land for Rs 150 crore with the ICICI Bank.
He also claimed that the primary object of the whole project was to grab land in and around Bangalore.