Yeddyurappa’s minister faces illegal land deal case

BANGALORE - Karnataka Information Technology Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu and his son Katta Jagadish Naidu have been slapped with charges of forgery, cheating and creating false documents in a multi-crore rupee land deal scandal.

Along with them, a police complaint has also been filed against nine others, Karnataka Lok Ayukta (ombudsman) N. Santosh Hegde, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, told reporters here Thursday.

The senior Naidu is the first member of the land-scam hit Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s team to be named in a formal police complaint.

His son Jagadish, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party coporator of Bangalore city, was arrested in September in connection with a case for attempting to bribe a witness. He is now out on bail.

Naidu, who also holds the portfolios of biotechnology and housing, has denied the charges against him and his son.

The Naidus are accused, among other things, of floating fictious companies, and taking compensation from a government agency for lands that did not belong to them.

The filing of police complaint against Subramanya Naidu comes at a time when Yeddyurappa himself is battling charges of favouring his close kin in allotment of prime land in and around Bangalore.

Other charges against Naidus are of indulging in transactions in fictitious names and creating bogus firms.

The nine others facing the complaint include Naidus’ business associates and officials of the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB). The KIADB is the government agency that acquires land for industrial and infrastructure purposes.