Kumaraswamy seeks anticipatory bail

Bangalore, April 17 (IANS) Former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has sought anticipatory bail apprehending arrest over his alleged involvement in an illegal land deal in the state.

He has been charged with illegally freeing from government control over three acres of land in east Bangalore in 2007 while he was chief minister.

Kumaraswamy, now a Janata Dal-Secular MP, is the son of H.D. Deve Gowda, Janata Dal-Secular chief and a former prime minister.

Kumaraswamy sought anticipatory bail from the Karnataka High Court Monday after police attached to the Lokayukta (ombudsman) filed a chargesheet against him, former minister C. Chennigappa and two others -- A.V. Raviprakash and A.V. Sriram.

Raviprakash and Sriram, whose land the state government had acquired to form a residential layout, got it freed from official control and sold it to private parties for over Rs.20 million. The amount was several times more than what they would have received from the government.

Justice K.N. Keshavanarayana of the Karnataka High Court Tuesday sought the Lokayukta's response to Kumaraswamy's bail plea. He will again take up the matter April 20.

Kumaraswamy, Chennigappa, Raviprakash and Sriram have been charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy and corruption. Chennigappa, who was a minister in Kumaraswamy's cabinet, is accused of acting as a conduit to get the land freed from government control.

The chargesheet was filed on a private complaint by M.S. Mahadevaswami, a Bangalore resident who had accused Kumaraswamy of misusing his official position as the chief minister to give back the land to Raviprakash and Sriram even though the Bangalore Development Authority had started work on it.