E-Paper
Have no role in charity trust land allotment case: Kalaburagi MP Umesh Jadhav
Jadhav said that it was a non-profitable charity trust and the Civic Amenity (CA) site was allotted in 2004 on an outright sale basis
Bengaluru Umesh Jadhav, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Lok Sabha from Kalaburagi, on Friday said he had no part to play in the Murthy Charitable Trust case in which it was alleged that land costing several crores was sold off for under ₹22 lakh.
Jadhav said that it was a non-profitable charity trust and the Civic Amenity (CA) site was allotted in 2004 on an outright sale basis.
“On paying the outright sale consideration a conditional sale deed was executed in favour of the trust by putting it in possession of the said CA site. At that point of time neither my wife nor me were part of the trust and I was working under the Central Government as its employee. During 2020, the said trust requested my wife to become a trustee to promote its public activities and my wife with an intention to serve (the) public at large accepted the said offer. Thereafter, as per the process of law the Karnataka Housing Board has executed an absolute sale deed,” Jadhav said in a statement on Friday.
He added that the entire process was done according to the law.
“My wife has no pecuniary interest in the matter and as a philanthropist she wanted to assist the trust,” he added.
The Karnataka high court on Thursday had quashed an absolute sale deed executed by the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) in favour of a trust headed by the MP’s wife.
The court alleged favouritism and even imposed a ₹1 lakh fine on the KHB as well as ordered to hold an inquiry into the alleged transaction and recover the cost from erring officials.
The petitioner had alleged that there was collusion in the transaction which was executed 16 years after the allotment to circumvent the conditions of the original allotment.
The land in question is a 278 square meter parcel of land in Yelahanka New Town which was originally allotted in August 2004, but the KHB had executed the sale deed only on July 28 last year.
The petitioner, Adinayarana Shetty, had claimed that the land costing upwards of ₹10 crore was sold for just under ₹22 lakh.
Jadhav had won Kalaburagi MP seat in 2019 after he managed to hand Congress heavyweight, Mallikarjun Kharge, his very first electoral defeat.
“My political opponents have set up an alleged public spirited person to challenge the granting of such CA site in favour of the trust on the ground that the trust has not complied the condition of the conditional sale deed of putting up construction within two years, which the trust has complied and the condition is also not mandatorily required to be complied. Whether my wife is a trustee or not, the activity of the trust would go on for public purpose(s) as was done from 2004 to 2020, in her absence,” Jadhav said.
He added that a prevailing market value of the site as of 2004 was duly paid.
“Further the trust was also entitled for marginal land which it had possession right from the year 2004. Accordingly, at the present rate an amount of Rs. 18,00,000 crore is paid in addition. The high court has allowed the Writ Petition and has quashed the sale deed of the trust, but unnecessarily my name is dragged in though I have no interest in the matter. The trust is at liberty to take appropriate action as per law and I have nothing to say in the matter,” the MP added.
