The Hindu : New Delhi News : Gowda alleges fraud in BMIC case

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Tuesday, Nov 04, 2008
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New Delhi

Gowda alleges fraud in BMIC case

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, on Monday alleged that a fraud had been committed in the Bangalore-Mysore Integrated Corridor (BMIC) case by suppressing vital materials and said the Supreme Court must take suo motu cognisance of the matter and render justice.

Addressing journalists after releasing a book “A case study in fraud and collusion to defeat the ends of justice and defraud courts” brought out by the legal cell of the Janata Deal (Secular), Karnataka unit, Mr. Gowda said the study exposed how various orders and judgments had been obtained by not disclosing crucial documents and government decisions.

He alleged that the Yeddyurappa-led BJP government in the State had sought to suppress the biggest fraud in the Indian history, running into Rs. 30,000 crore, by hiding documents from the court.

He said “the lands being given to the NICE [Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises] company by the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) government now, and its alleged right to sell these, are not part of the original project as initially approved by the Karnataka High Court and upheld right up to the Supreme Court.”

Mr. Gowda said: “The BJP government, colluding with NICE, does not want scrutiny by the Supreme Court on this fraud and has taken the decision in the Cabinet to end the cases in the Supreme Court to bury the fraud for ever.”

He said his party’s legal cell had conducted the study in the light of the latest Cabinet decision “which will make the matters pending before the Supreme Court infructuous.”

‘Panel disbanded’

He alleged that the Cabinet decision in one stroke ensured that the Justice B.C. Patel Commission of Inquiry was disbanded as per the demands of NICE and GIC tenders were cancelled.

In his foreword to the book, Mr. Gowda said: “A project which was sanctioned to decongest Bangalore was turned into a real estate venture contemplating commercial exploitation of thousands of acres in Bangalore which will further congest the city.”

The study said that “at no stage there has been any attempt [on the part of the previous government in the State] not to implement the project as conceived originally and upheld in Somashekar Reddy’s cases, which is the basis for the successive judicial approvals of the BMIC project.

The entire 20,193 acres is agreed to be given; land for various stages as per Somashekar Reddy’s cases has been agreed to be given.”

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