Kumaraswamy hits out at Cong over denotification charge, says he has no role

NT Correspondent Mysuru: JD(S) leader and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday hit out at the ruling Congress in Karnataka for leveling allegations against him in connection with a land denotification in Bengaluru, and claimed that he had no role in it. He also claimed that the investigations into the case have found no illegality but, aimed at targeting him, the case has been "kept open." The Congress on Thursday asked the Lokayukta to expedite its probe against former Chief Ministers B S Yediyurappa and Kumaraswamy in connection with the alleged denotification.

Ministers Krishna Byre Gowda, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Santhosh Lad had held a joint press conference and released documents regarding the denotification of 1.11 acres of land at Gangenahalli in Bengaluru North. "....I'm not running away, I need not take protection under someone else's name, on issues concerning me... the only relationship with that property is, it is related to my wife's mother, I'm not denying it. Have I done the denotification?" Kumaraswamy told reporters.

Stating that he was under the impression that Krishna Byre Gowda was "intelligent as he has studied abroad," while he had studied at a school in Hassan, Kumaraswamy said in 2015 Siddaramaiah, "through" a person named Jaya Kumar Patil, had filed a case against him in this cases in which Yediyurappa is accused number 1 (A1) and he is accused number 2 (A2). "For the last three months they have been struggling to do something.....in 2015 this case was filed with Lokayukta. Till 2018 Siddaramaiah was the CM, what was he doing without getting investigated?" he said, adding that after he made allegations against the Siddaramaiah government in connection with CSR funds and transfer related issues, they started looking for "means to tackle him." Alleging that a 'benami' named Rajashekharaiah, "who has nothing to do with the said land (that was notified)", gave a petition when Kumaraswamy was the CM in 2007, seeking denotification, which was acquired 30 years ago, Krishna Byre Gowda alleged Kumaraswamy had asked officials to move the file in this regard.

He has said, the original owner of the said land had 21 heirs, who gave a general power of attorney to Kumaraswamy's mother-in-law. Pointing out that when Yediyurappa was CM in 2010, despite then principal secretary K Jothiramalingam noting on the file that it was not a fit case for denotification, the former ordered denotification, Gowda claimed.