Lid blown off CM's murky land deals

CM’s family bought Rs 85-cr govt land for Rs 36 cr: DKS
MURKY POLITICS: SHIVA KUMAR DROPS BOMBSHELL VINIVINC SHASTRY SPILLS BEANS
The Times of India

Bangalore: Exactly 48 days after he became chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy’s family members bought land meant for industrial use at less than half the market value on Bangalore’s outskirts, Congress MLA D K Shiva Kumar claimed on Tuesday.

Kumar produced documents to prove his allegation. The documents show that the family bought 9.72 acres of government-allotted industrial land near Whitefield for a measly Rs 36.06 crore when the market value is Rs 85 crore.

Kumar, a bete noire of former PM H D Deve Gowda, told reporters that the property at Doddanekundi village in Bangalore South taluk was purchased by the Gowda family on March 23 this year. The property has been registered in the name of Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha, brother H D Ramesh, sisters Anusuya Manjunath and Shyla Chandrashekar, sisters-in-law Bhavani Revanna and Kavitha Balakrishne Gowda.

Kumar said the property, part of the Special Economic Zone, was acquired by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board and given in 1986 and 1993 to Centennial Projects. Subsequently, a software tech park came up in the four-storeyed structure on the plot.

The Gowda family — which has maintained that it does not own government-allotted land — moved in by paying an advance of Rs 30 lakh in July 2005, Kumar said.

“Though the market value of the property is around Rs 85 crore, the Gowda family has under-valued it during registration. The stamp duty paid was a meagre Rs 3.03 crore,’’ Kumar said. Slamming Gowda and his minister-son H D Revanna for proclaiming that they do not own land, Kumar asked: “How did the family get so much of money? By selling potatoes and chillies grown in their farm?’’

Linking the property deal to the Bellary bribe issue, Kumar demanded: “The property should be confiscated by the government and a CBI probe ordered into the Bellary issue.’’

This seems to be the next stage in the ongoing political mud-slinging between the two sides. Kumaraswamy has stopped all granite quarrying in Kanakapura, where Shiva Kumar has business interests. Revanna had indirectly called Kumar a “tea supplier’’.

‘PLOT’THICKENS
Bangalore: Details of property owned by Deve Gowda family near Whitefield, as claimed by Congress MLA D K Shiva Kumar.
Location: Doddanekundi village in K R Puram hobli
Total area: 39,378 sq mt (9.72 acre)
Site area & features: 1,21,028 sq ft. A four-storeyed building with a terrace cafeteria and place to park 190 cars and 120 two-wheelers.
Seller: Chatru M Menda of M/s Millennia Realtors Private Ltd.
Buyers: Anitha Kumaraswamy, H D Ramesh, Kavitha Balakrishna Gowda, Anusuya Manjunath, Shyla Chandrashekar and Bhavani Revanna Witnesses: H D Balakrishna Gowda and Vijayalakshmi H
Registration date : March 23, 2006
Amount paid: Rs 36.06 crore

Shiva Kumar’s posers
Deve Gowda calls himself a humble farmer, did his family raise Rs 36.06 crore for this property by selling potatoes and chillies?
Public works minister H D Revanna said he would take political sanyas if any one proves that his family owns government-allotted land, will he stick to his word?
Isn’t it a crime to undervalue property?
Coming in the backdrop of Bellary bribe allegations, has the property transaction got to do anything with the allegations? Is the government refusing a CBI probe for the same reason?
Kumaraswamy said he doesn’t know how many zeroes are there in a crore, how did his family pay so many crores of rupees?
Rent collected
Rs 46.76 lakh per month, says Kumar. The building houses a software company. Sources said Doddanekundi area (where the property is located) is part of the old industrial area in the region, next to the Export Promotion Industrial Park. All the land there was acquired by the KIADB from local farmers for industrial use only.

The building that is part of the 9.72-acre property that has been bought by chief minister H D Kumaraswamy’s family.


The deal is 100% legal, says CM
Defending the property deal as “100 per cent legal”, CM Kumaraswamy dared Shiva Kumar and other detractors to complain to the income tax department. “The purchase agreement was made in 2004 and our family share is just 3%,’’ he said. Kumaraswamy said the sale documents produced by Kumar were genuine. However, the family had taken 85 per cent loan from the Karnataka Bank and 13 per cent advance from the building’s tenants.
On March 23, 2006, the bank released the loan and land was registered.
Kumaraswamy said Congress leaders have fallen into the trench they have dug.


Congress waves deed showing Gowda family, CM wife bought Rs 36-cr park
The Indian Express

BANGALORE, August 1:The purchase of a Bangalore software park, officially valued at Rs 36 crore, has once again drawn former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, his son Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and their family into controversy.


Congress leader D K Shivakumar today produced copies of the registered sale deed for a 9.72-acre software park on March 23, 2006. Shivakumar, who has leveled a series of serious allegations against the Chief Minister’s family over the past 10 days, questioned the source of the money.

“Never has the family of a Prime Minister or Chief Minister purchased a property of such high value within 51 days of coming to power. Is this money a part of the Rs 150 crore bribe alleged to have been taken from mine owners in Bellary?” Shivkumar said.

According to the deed, the purchasers are: Deve Gowda’s youngest son H D Ramesh; his daughters Anusuya Manjunath and Shyla Chandrashekhar; his daughters-in-law H Kavita, wife of eldest son H D Balakrishna; Bhavani Revanna, wife of second son and PWD minister H D Revanna, and Anita Kumaraswamy, wife of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy—Gowda’s third son.

The park is referred to as Campus A (one of four campuses) in a 9.72-acre software technology park called RMZ Centennial. Campus A comprises a site area of 1,21,028 square feet, a building with four floors, parking space for 190 cars and 120 two-wheelers.

It’s been sold to the Gowda family by a property development company called M/s Millennia Realtors Private Ltd, represented by its authorized signatory Chatru M Menda.

This comes after The Indian Express exposed how Kumaraswamy owned 46 acres in the limits of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority.

‘‘Nothing illegal has been done. The property has been bought with loans from banks. There has been no forgery of documents. There is nothing unconstitutional in this,” said Gowda’s aide and JDS leader Y S V Datta.

‘‘The children of the humble farmer, son of the soil H D Deve Gowda are owners of an IT park. How did they get this wealth? Is it from selling potatoes and chillies? Only a CBI inquiry can tell,” said Shivakumar, who has been fighting the Gowdas for a while on the political front and business front in the Kanakapura area near Bangalore