16 Karnataka officials booked in graft case worth ₹79 cr

The state government ordered a criminal case against all the accused and asked the local police to hand over the case to the CID for probe on December 7.

The Nanjanagudu town police in Mysuru district have registered a case against a senior Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer and 15 others on charges of cheating the state government to the tune of ₹79.29 crore by creating fake documents.

The case was registered against erstwhile Nanjanagudu tahsildar, A Naveen Joseph, erstwhile land tribunal president B Krishna Murthy, Shirastedar Ramesh Babu, revenue inspector Shivaraj, village accountant Venkatesh and nine fake land owners

The case was registered against erstwhile Nanjanagudu tahsildar, A Naveen Joseph, erstwhile land tribunal president B Krishna Murthy, Shirastedar Ramesh Babu, revenue inspector Shivaraj, village accountant Venkatesh and nine fake land owners under sections 406,409,468,471, 420, 465, 149, 120B, and section 192 of Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1964, following a complaint by current tahsildar Shivamurthy.

“All the accused in 2010 and 2011 got the ownership of land through land tribunal by creating fake documents,” Shivamurthy said in his complaint. He said 891 acres of land bearing Survey No. 390 to 424 in Himmavu village was in the name of Swamiji Sri Mahanta Krishnanandagiri Goswami of Tripura Bhairavi Mutt, Mysuru.

After the death of Swamiji, his relatives moved an application before the land tribunal claiming ownership of the land. The then chairman of the land tribunal, H.K. Krishnamurthy, granted 891 acres of land to nine persons on September 14, 2011, violating norms, the complaint said.

Based on land tribunal orders, the nine accused, Satyabhama, Sonu Sudheer, Bhishmapitamaha, Kuldeep Prakash, Shobalatha, Hemalatha, Nisha Verma, Anjana Sharma, and Vijaya Lakshmi, applied for khata (ownership) in tahsildar’s office. The then tahsildar Naveen Joseph and officials created the ownership in the name of the nine ineligible persons even without obtaining a family tree and death certificate, mentioning land tribunal order, the complaint stated.

Then the ineligible land owners availed compensation of ₹6 crore to 11 crores amounting to ₹79.29 crore from the Karnataka Industrial area development board (KIADB) after the board acquired the land, the complaint added.

Following the complaint by RTI worker K N Nagendra, the state chief secretary ordered a probe. The auditor general office also found irregularities in the issue and sent the report to the government that ₹79.29 crores loss to the exchequer.

The state government ordered a criminal case against all the accused and asked the local police to hand over the case to the CID for probe on December 7.

“We have received a complaint against all the 16 accused and registered an FIR under various sections of the IPC. As per procedure. Police registered a case and would hand over the case to the CID for probe in a couple of days,” Mysuru additional superintendent of police Dr Nandini said.

The police have no role in the investigation as the government handed over the case to the CID, she added.