Denotification: FIRs against Yeddyurappa, Kumaraswamy

The Karnataka Lokayukta Police has filed FIRs against former Chief Ministers BS Yeddyurappa and HD Kumaraswamy in a land de-notificaton case, charging them under the Prevention of Corruption Act and several IPC provisions, including criminal conspiracy and cheating.

Both leaders have been accused of de-notifying land at Matadahalli Layout in RT Nagar here, with Vimala, the mother-in-law of Kumaraswamy, and her son TS Channappa, also being named in the FIRs, Lokayukta Superintendent of Police Sonia Narang said here.

Sections 13 (i) (c) and (d) and 13 (ii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, pertaining to criminal misconduct by public servants have been invoked against Yeddyurappa and Kumaraswamy, Narang said.

De-notification is a process of returning government land acquired for a project to private parties. The process gathered pace after Kumaraswamy put up the files, and the land was de-notified by Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister in 2010, social activist Jayayakumar Hiremath, who is the complainant, charged.

JDS leader Kumaraswamy, predecessor to Yeddyurappa, had headed a BJP-JDS coalition government. Yeddyurappa had de-notified one acre and 11 guntas (1/40th of an acre) of land, which was originally owned by Thimmareddy, Nagappa and Muniswamappa, Hiremath charged.