Karnataka IT minister resigns over land scam
By IANSFriday, December 3, 2010
BANGALORE - Karnataka IT Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu Friday resigned following a police complaint against him in a multicrore land deal, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa said and added that the move was meant to ensure an impartial probe into the case.
“I have accepted his resignation and forwarded it to governor (H.R. Bhardwaj) for acceptance,” Yeddyurappa told reporters here.
The chief minister said the resignation was “unfortunate but Naidu has taken the decision to ensure an impartial probe into charges against him”.
Naidu’s resignation comes a day after the Karnataka Lok Ayukta (ombudsman) registered a police complaint against the minister, his son Katta Jagadish Naidu, a corporator in Bangalore city, and eight others in the land deal case.
Naidu is the fourth minister of the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka to quit over a controversy since it took office in May 2008.
The others were Haratalu Halappa over charges of rape, S.N. Krishnaiah Shetty over a land deal and Ramachandra Gowda in view of irregularities in recruitment to government medical colleges and hospitals.
The Naidus have been slapped with charges of forgery, cheating, creating false documents, floating fictitious companies, and taking compensation from a government agency for lands that did not belong to them.
Naidu’s son Jagadish was arrested in September while attempting to bribe a witness in the land deal case. Jagadish is now out on bail.
Naidu, who also holds the portfolios of biotechnology and housing, has denied the charges against him and his son.
The filing of a police complaint against Naidu comes at a time when Yeddyurappa himself is battling charges of favouring his close kin in the allotment of prime land in and around Bangalore.
The nine others named in the complaint include Naidus’ business associates and officials of the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB). The KIADB is the government agency that acquires land for industrial and infrastructure purposes.
