Karnataka: Case registered against BDA officials for Rs 100 crore land scam

Officials of Bangalore Development Authority were on Saturday booked for swapping prime land acquired by the authority with another parcel of property causing a Rs 100 crore loss, BDA chairman S R Vishwanath said.

Vishwanath, who is also the Yelahanka MLA in the city, said in a statement that the officials colluded with one Nagaraj. He, however, did not name the officials involved in the alleged fraud and the number of authorities was also not mentioned.

He added that a case has been registered at the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) on Saturday based on a BDA task force report that gave details of large-scale irregularities in the deal.

The BMTF is a special police setup in Karnataka established to safeguard and protect government property in Bengaluru.

The BDA had acquired about 4.3 acres of land way back in 1983 at village Banaswadi in Bengaluru East Taluk from a person Eeranna and the amount was deposited in the civil court, Vishwanath said.

“However, Nagaraj got a General Power of Attorney (GPA) from Eeranna, showed it as his own land, formed a layout and sold them. In the meantime, the BDA acquired land from the revenue land owners and filed an application in the court saying that alternative sites have to be given to them,” the BDA chairman said.

The Karnataka High Court, which heard the case, directed the BDA to take a decision as per regulations, Vishwanath said.

Nagaraj got all the plots transferred to his name and applied to get the alternative sites sanctioned in his name but the BDA board rejected his plea saying that this cannot be done, the BJP MLA said.

In a meeting in 2012, the BDA board decided to give 4.3 acres of land in various survey numbers in the BDA-formed Arkavathi Layout.

Further, he again filed an application to the BDA to give an alternative site stating that many areas in the land were in the buffer zone, which made it impossible to build houses, the MLA said.

In a buffer zone, no construction activity of any kind is permitted.

“The BDA accepted his plea in 2014, granted land parcels in Thanisandra at various other prime locations in Nagaraj’s name and registered the property in his name,” Vishwanath said.

Considering it as a “mega scam”, the BDA chairman said he directed the BDA task force to investigate all the documents.

The Deputy Superintendent of Police of BDA task force P Ravi Kumar and his team submitted a report stating that large scale irregularities have taken place in this case, which resulted in a loss of about Rs 100 crore to the BDA.

The BDA Task Force lodged a complaint with the BMTF to take action against Nagaraj and other BDA officials involved in the case.

“A BMTF inspector has registered a case and started investigation into it,” Vishwanath said in the statement.