Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

Case pertains to grant of land to current mayor when Ashoka was chairman of bagair hukum committee. As per law, the home minister is obliged to appear before the investigating officer as a witness for the recording of his statement

Deputy chief minister R Ashoka, who holds the key home portfolio, has been dealt a googly by a unit of the very police department that he heads. Sleuths of the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF), which is headed by ADGP R P Sharma, served a notice on the home minister on Saturday, asking him to personally appear before them within three days and clarify his role in the illegal allotment of eight acres of prime land to mayor D Venkatesha Murthy and his wife in Sumanahalli of Uttarahalli hobli in 2004, a period when Ashoka was an MLA representing Uttarahalli.

 
The notice has been served under section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), as per which the home minister is duty-bound to appear before the BMTF investigating officer (IO) for the recording of his statement. “At this juncture, Ashoka has to appear before the IO as a witness. After the statement is recorded, it is for the IO to decide whether he can continue to treat Ashoka as a witness or make him an accused. If the IO feels that the allotment of land has been done in an irregular manner for some pecuniary benefit and finds further evidence to corroborate this, the home minister can be made an accused in the case along with the mayor and his wife, who have obtained bail,” a legal expert opined.
 
“The onus of proving that he is innocent and has commited no mistake, and that there is no pecuniary benefit involved in the land allotment, lies with the home minister after the notice is served on him. If he avoids going to the BMTF to record his statement, the BMTF authorities can continue with the investigation against the home minister,’’ the legal expert said.
 
When BMTF sleuths went to Ashoka’s office on Saturday afternoon to serve the notice, he was not in. His personal secretary, H M Kempe Gowda, refused to take the notice. Following this, the sleuths despatched the notice via registered post-acknowledgement due.
 
When contacted, Ashoka told Bangalore Mirror, “I have not received the notice so far. I will take a call after seeing it.’’
 
The development has shaken the state police brass, some of whom are sceptical about the timing of the notice to the home minister. “BMTF head R P Sharma is on the warpath with the government and BBMP corporators. He has challenged his transfer from BMTF by the state government and obtained a stay order from the Central Adminstrative Tribunal (CAT) last week. Orders in this case have been reserved for Wednesday by CAT. Meanwhile, he has accused state chief secretary S V Ranganath, principal secretary to the CM and former BDA commissioner Pradeep Singh Karola, and urban development principal secretary Amita Prasad of hatching a criminal conspiracy to transfer him from BMTF with malafide intentions. He has said so in a legal notice despatched to the trio last week. A notice to the home minister at this juncture makes the matter worse, and that is why we are sceptical about it,’’a senior IPS officer told Bangalore Mirror.
 
But the BMTF authorities have ruled out any hanky-panky in the notice to the home minister. “There is no irregularity or malafide intentions behind the notice. The notice has been issued as per law by the IO after getting due clearance from our boss R P Sharma,” sources said. “People should not read too much into this. It is just a notice asking the home minister to clarify his version. If he has no role in the illegal allotment as alleged by some people, we will treat him as just a witness,” the BMTF sources said.
 
Ashoka has been garnering some positive publicity with his public statements on the exodus of North Easterners from the city and the recent busting of a terror cell, and the BMTF notice comes as a sudden ‘spoiler’, sources said. The controversy started after mayor Venkatesha Murthy made a statement that he had got the land with the help of Ashoka when the latter was the MLA from Uttarahalli and chairman of the bagair hukum land allotment committee (which he continues to head).
 
The BMTF authorities want a clarification from the home minister on the issue. An FIR has been registered with the BMTF police station against the mayor and his wife after some persons complained that it was an llegal allotment. The mayor was served a notice to appear before the BMTF police a fortnight ago. He obtained anticipatory bail and appeared before the BMTF sleuths to record his statement.
 
When contacted, the mayor told Bangalore Mirror,”I have appeared before the sleuths on getting the notice and have clarified the points to them. I have done no mistake.’’

I have appeared before the sleuths on getting the notice and clarified the points. I have done no mistake
Venkatesha Murthy, Bangalore Mayor

THE CHARGES
Mayor D Venkatesha Murthy and his wife Prabha are accused of suppressing facts to get eight acres of land in Summanahalli of Uttarahalli hobli. R Ashoka, who was MLA of Uttarahalli in 2004, had as bagair hukum land allotment committee chairman recommended Murthy’s name for allotment of land. The mayor has been accused of falsely claiming to be a ‘landless labourer’ while applying for the land. The land was said to have belonged to BMTC and was meant for the construction of a bus terminal.