Bengaluru, Sep 19 (PTI) The ruling Congress in Karnataka on Thursday asked the Lokayukta to expedite its probe against former Chief Ministers B S Yediyurappa and H D Kumaraswamy in connection with the alleged denotification of land here.

Ministers Krishna Byre Gowda, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Santhosh Lad held a joint press conference and released documents regarding the denotification of 1.11 acres of land at Gangenahalli in Kasaba Hobli of Bengaluru North.

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This land was acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to form a layout in 1976, and its acquisition process was completed in 1977, Gowda said.

Alleging that a 'benami' named Rajashekharaiah, "who has nothing to do with the land", gave a petition when Kumaraswamy was the chief minister in 2007, seeking denotification of the land, which was acquired 30 years ago, he said Kumaraswamy had then asked officials to move the file in this regard.

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Meanwhile, the original owner of the said land had 21 heirs, who gave a general power of attorney to Kumaraswamy's mother-in-law, Gowda alleged.

Further pointing out that when Yediyurappa was the CM in 2010, despite the then principal secretary to the urban development department K Jothiramalingam noting on the file that it was not a fit case for denotification, the former ordered denotification, Gowda claimed.

"Subsequently after the denotification of the land in June, 2010, it was registered in the name of Kumaraswamy's brother-in-law Channappa in July that year."

The land costing several crores of rupees belonged to BDA and should have been used for the poor, he said, asking: "is it not a systematic fraud?.

The High Court had imposed a fine of Rs 25,000, while disposing of Yediyurappa's plea challenging Lokayukta's investigation into this case, Dinesh Gundu Rao said, adding, court had allowed Lokayukta to go ahead with its probe in 2021.

"There has been a delay.....the Lokayukta must take this seriously.... If an investigation is done, both Kumaraswamy and Yediyurappa will get caught," he said.

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