Karnataka Chief Minister’s family accused of buying Rs 850 million worth IT park

Even before the dust kicked up over the Rs 1.5 billion bribery charge against Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy could settle down, the Congress has dropped another bombshell by producing documentary evidence on the purchase of a hi-tech Information Technology park in Bangalore by the Chief Minister’s family recently.

Kumaraswamy’s bete noire and Congress leader D K Shivakumar convened a press conference in Bangalore to release documents and photographs of a multi-storied software technology park spread across almost ten acres of land in Bangalore, which had been purchased in the name of the Chief Minister’s wife, his two sisters and a brother, about 50 days after Kumaraswamy assumed office.

The software technology park, which has a built up area of 200,000 square feet, is situated in the technology hub of Whitefield in Bangalore. “Though the market value of the property is a whopping Rs 850 million, the Chief Minister’s family had bought for a measly Rs 360 million”, Shivakumar said producing copies of the sale deed and registration documents.

The IT park, which has been registered in the name of the Chief Minister’s wife Anitha Kumaraswamy, sisters Anasuya and Shyla, besides brother H D Ramesh, is built on Government-allotted land.

Linking the purchase of the IT park to the Rs 1.5 billion bribery charge against the Chief Minister, the Congress alleged that said Kumaraswamy’s family had purchased the property from illegal mining payoff.

Giving the sequence of events since Kumaraswamy was sworn in as Chief Minister of Karnataka on February 6 to head the JD (S)-BJP Government, Shivakumar, who is also a former Minister, said the issue of illegal mining in Bellary was raised by Forest Minister Cheniggappa during late February and early March. The family members of the Chief Minister purchased the property on March 23. Two months later, BJP legislator Janardhan Reddy charges Kumaraswamy of accepting a bribe of Rs 1.5 billion, Shivakumar said.

“How did the family of the Chief Minister get so much of money ?. By selling potatoes and chillies in their farmland?”, Shivakumar sought to know from Kumaraswamy, who swears by farming.

The Congress party’s fresh expose on the Chief Minister’s family, which comes less than a week after producing documents to prove the export of iron ore by the family members of Kumaraswamy, may have become a source of embarrassment.

But, the Chief Minister has defended the deal, claiming it was a “perfectly legal transaction”. He claimed that the family members paid only 3 per cent of property value while 83 per cent was raised through loan from a bank. The remainder 13 per cent came by way of advances from the tenants of the IT park”, he said.

However, he admitted that the documents produced by the Congress leaders were genuine. He said the details of the transaction had been declared in the Income Tax returns.

But, the Congress party alleged that the Chief Minister’s family had could have purchased more such properties clandestinely and reiterated its demand for a CBI probe into the Rs 1.5 billion payoff charge. “The IT part fetches a monthly rent of Rs 5 million”, Shivakumar alleged.