Bangalore, Oct. 25 (ANI): A special Lokayukta court on Thursday ordered police to probe External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Devegowda for their role in the Mysore-Bangalore Express Highway scam.
Developed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Limited (NICE), a complaint was filed against the above three leaders after certain irregularities cropped up over the issue of acquiring land belonging to farmers' for the project.
Social activist T.J. Abraham filed the complaint on July 18 this year, in which he specifically mentioned the roles played by Krishna, Yeddyurappa and Devegowda.
Abraham had earlier filed two applications before the court. In the first, he asked the court to attach the 6,999 acres of land that had been fraudulently acquired for the execution of the toll road project and to procure a report of all transactions that were made with respect to it.
In his second application, he asked the court to exercise its power conferred under Section 4 of the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance to direct the Superintendent of Police, Lokayukta Police, to attach the total toll illegally collected by NICE and Nandi Economic Corridor Enterprises Ltd (NECEL) or through its agents.
Abraham also filed a synopsis along with a tabular presentation of claims made in the complaint, saying that the consortium had failed to a create a concrete road of international standards worth Rs.522 crore.
Apart from Krishna, Yeddyurappa and Devegowda, there are 99 other accused, including former chief minister N Dharam Singh, Ashok Kheny, Managing Director NICE, Baba Kalyani, CMD Bharat Forge, Narayan Vaghul, Chairman ICICI, 57 IAS officers, former state Advocate General Ashok Haranahally, sitting High Court Judge, H S Kempanna and William Weld, former Governor of Massachusetts. (ANI)