Hassan: In what could prove to be a severe embarrassment for former Congress minister A. Manju, the investigating officer of a land allotment scam, has reportedly gathered ample evidence against theprevious Hassan district incharge minister to prove that he approved government land grants to 1,093 beneficiaries, all belonging to Arakalgud, through the Baigar Hukum Land Regularization Committee in collusion with then tahsildar of Arakalagud, Prasanna Murthy. A chargesheet has been filed against the former minister in this regard.
The land allotment was allegedly done by falsely creating papers after the poll code of conduct came into force for the Assembly election-2018.
The chargesheet submitted to the election commissioner, Bengaluru, principal secretary, revenue department and regional commissioner, Mysuru, says that there is prima facie evidence against Mr Manju to prove that he did not conduct the meeting of the Bagair Hukum Land Regularization Committee on March 20, 2018 as claimed by him, for making the land allotments.
The vehicle logbook of the police pilot vehicle mentions that Manju was at Hassan IB on March 20, 2018 while the call data records of the Arkalgud tahsildar show that Prasanna Murthy was at Arakalgud throughout the day and never visited Hassan town on March 20.
The CCTV footage of the Arkalgud tahsildar office also establishes that Prasanna Murthy was at the office on the said date-another pointer to the fact that the Land Regularisation Committee meeting never happened.
It has also been established that Manju in his capacity of head of the Bagair Hukum Land Regularisation Committee had signed proceedings of the Committee meetings on February 24, 2018, March 3, March 16 and March 20. But, there is no approval of land grant to beneficiaries inthe three meetings held on February 24, March 3 and 16.
The land grant approval to 1,093 beneficiaries has been mentioned only in proceedings of the so called meeting held on March 20, 2018. But, that meeting to approve the land grant, in fact, never took place and has been mentioned fraudulently, says the chargesheet.
After an investigation, Hassan deputy commissioner Rohini Sindhuri had suspended tahsildar Prasanna Murthy while a notice was served on Manju in April, 2018. However, Manju had thenrefuted the allegations against him.
Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri could not be contacted for her reaction to the chargesheetfiled against Manju.
