Separate order sought in case against Deve Gowda, others

Judge N K Sudhindra Rao then directed Abraham to file a synopsis and other attachments, if any, by August 22 and adjourned the matter till then.

Bangalore: An activist on Friday filed an application in Lokayukta court seeking a separate order for each chapter in the case he has filed against former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, External Affairs S M Krishna, former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and others for alleged irregularities in the Bangalore-Mysore expressway project.

T J Abraham filed the application requesting the court to consider each chapter of the total eight chapters separately and pass orders in each considering that the "corruption, illegality, manipulation and fraud in instant case is of such unprecedented scale".

Judge N K Sudhindra Rao then directed Abraham to file a synopsis and other attachments, if any, by August 22 and adjourned the matter till then.

There are 102 people named in the complaint filed on July 18, including former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh, Ashok Kheny, Managing Director NICE, which was awarded the project, Baba Kalyani, CMD Bharat Forge, Narayan Vaghul, Chairman ICICI, former Law Secretary and sitting state high court judge H S Kempanna, 57 IAS officials and William Weld, former Governor of Massachusetts (who was a part of a consortium).

Abraham alleged that in 1995, when Deve Gowda was the chief minister, an MoU was entered into between the state government and a consortium which included Kheny for construction of a road of international standard between Bangalore and Mysore.

As per a framework agreement signed subsequently, the consortium was ready to invest Rs 522 crore for the about Rs 1,500 crore project while the remaining amount was to be raised through loans.

However, Abraham claimed, the consortium was unable to pay the initial deposit of Rs 10 crore to Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) for the proposed acquisition of land for the project.

He submitted that 1,931 acres was alloted on lease for Rs 10 per acre. Immediately, the land was mortagaged with ICICI bank for a loan of Rs 150 crore out of which Rs 10 crore was paid to KIADB in 2003.

PTI

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