The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Shivakumar fires yet another salvo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 02, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Shivakumar fires yet another salvo

Special Correspondent

Deve Gowda family accused of undervaluing Whitefield property

Bangalore: The former Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday fired another salvo against the family of the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, accusing it of acquiring a large property valued at Rs. 36 crore in the software hub of Whitefield on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Displaying documents, which, he said, were related to the purchase of the property, the Congress MLA demanded that the Government should at least order an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Rs. 150-crore payoff allegation levelled against Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy by the BJP MLC G. Janardhan Reddy. He claimed that the purchase of the Whitefield property was linked to Mr. Reddy's allegation that money was collected from those engaged in illegal mining. Only a CBI inquiry could establish such a link, if any, he said.

Among others present at the news conference were the former Speaker Ramesh Kumar, MLA; the former Chairman of the Legislative Council V.R. Sudarshan, MLC; and KPCC general secretaries Prakash Rathod and V.S. Ugrappa, MLCs. The sale deed pertaining to the property along with a picture of the building that has come up on it were also released.

According to the purported sale document, five members of the Deve Gowda family, including Anitha Kumaraswamy, wife of the Chief Minister, and Bhavani Revanna, wife of Public Works Minister H.D. Revanna bought the property, which has a commercial building measuring nearly two lakh sq. ft, from Centennial Projects Private Ltd. at a cost of Rs. 36.06 crore. The value of the building has been estimated at Rs. 85 crore, Mr. Shivakumar claimed. The others whose names figure in the sale document are H. Kavitha, Anusuya Manjunath, Shyla Chandrashekar and H.D. Ramesh, younger brother of the Chief Minister.

Mr. Shivakumar charged that the property had been undervalued and should be confiscated.

Charge dismissed

Bangalore Staff Reporter writes:

"Since when has he (Mr. Shivakumar) been appointed the authority to evaluate property prices, and where did he get these figures from," Mr. Kumaraswamy countered.

"I am very happy. This is only the next episode in the Congress' agenda to rake up non-issues concerning my family, beginning with the bribe issue," he told presspersons here on Tuesday.

He said the framework agreement for property in question was signed with the firm, RMZ, in 2004, and not after he became Chief Minister. This debunked the allegation that it was purchased with the "ill-gotten gains" of Rs. 150 crore from the mining lobby, Mr. Kumaraswamy said.

If Mr. Shivakumar had sought the documents from the sub-registrar's office or the Income Tax Department, he would have got all the information he wanted, Mr. Kumaraswamy said. He maintained that the guidance value as per the Revenue Department was only Rs. 24 crore, but the property was registered for Rs. 36 crore. As per the agreement with the builder, 85 per cent of the property development cost was in bank loans, 13 per cent from investment by tenants and occupants, while the family owned three per cent.

He said if he began to rake up Mr. Shivakumar's dealings, the latter would be driven to suicide.

H.D. Balakrishna Gowda, eldest son of. Mr Deve Gowda, said that contrary to the allegations, the Income Tax Department had been informed of the purchase several months ago.

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