FIR against Deve Gowda, S M Krishna, Yeddyurappa

Mangalore Today/ DHNS

Bangalore, Nov 17 : Lokayukta police register cases on Nice irregularities. The Lokayukta police on Saturday registered an FIR against former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, former chief ministers S M Krishna and B S Yeddyurappa and others in a case pertaining to irregularities in the implementation of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (Nice).

The case had been referred to the Lokayukta Additional General of Police (ADGP) H N Sathyanarayana Rao by the Special Lokayukta Court for a probe under Section 156 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

 

ADGP Rao said a special team had been constituted to investigate the case consisting of DySPs D Palakshaiah (Bangalore Urban), B Lokesh (Bangalore Rural) and Syed Nizamuddin (Ramanagara) and three inspectors. Palakshaiah will be the chief investigating officer in the case.

The complaint filed by T J Abraham states that Deve Gowda as the chief minister entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with a consortium consisting of Nice Managing Director Ashok Kheny and Director Baba Kalyani for the construction of a highway from Bangalore to Mysore in 1995, without ever ascertaining their financial capability.

Illegal act

Deve Gowda is also accused of alloting 4,285 acres to benefit Nice illegally. Under the original agreement, the total land that was required for the peripheral road and the expressway to Mysore was 20,193 acres. But the State set up the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority (BMICAPA) and installed Ashok Kheny on board, even though he had no right to be there.

“He, along with D K Shivakumar, then decided that the total land that had to be acquired for the project was 1.75 lakh acres,” Abraham had submitted.

Abraham submitted that during the tenure of S M Krishna as the chief minister, the then Additional Chief Secretary, PWD, stated that if Nice was exempted from payment of stamp duty of Rs 56 crore on the first sale of land to the company in townships, the government would stand to benefit subsequently by way of the second sale of lands in the townships.

This was a fraudulent and mischievous excuse used deliberately to cause a specific loss of Rs 56 crore to the State exchequer,  Abraham had alleged. Abraham had also argued that not a single km of the stretch of road connecting Bangalore and Mysore measuring 111 km had been built 17 years after the government agreed to entrust the BMIC project to Nice.

The FIR also names former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, Baba Kalyani, Nice MD Ashok Kheny, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc CEO Richard Hangen , former Secretary, PWD Major C R Ramesh, former Ministers D K Shivakumar, R V Deshpande, C M Udasi and others.