Land allotment case: SC asks former Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy, wife to face trial

Kumaraswamy and his wife, Anita, have been accused of abusing their official positions in granting lease to a mining company for lifting of one lakh metric tonne of iron ore among others.

The Supreme Court Tuesday ordered former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and his wife to stand trial over corruption charges against them.

Kumaraswamy and his wife, Anita, then a JD(S) MLA, have been accused of abusing their official positions in granting lease to a mining company for lifting of one lakh metric tonne of iron ore and for allotment of 80 acre of land to a private cooperative society. The court also snubbed both of them for alleging political vendetta.

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“Of course, you are a political person. You will always say it… Merely because you were Chief Minister at one point in time does not mean that you would not face the trial. Go and face the trial,” said a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Prafulla C Pant.

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Allowing submissions by advocate Nikhil Majithia, who represented the complainant, advocate M Vinod Kumar, the court set aside the order by the Karnataka High Court in October 2011 that had quashed the proceedings initiated against the couple by the Special Lokayukta Court.

“The High Court ought not to have quashed the order against the accused and permitted the trial to continue. The allegations against them ought to have been adjudicated in the trial,” said the bench.

The bench told advocate V Giri, who defended the couple, that it would not want to record how a government officer wrote that the then CM Kumaraswamy called him three times in two hours and threatened him to do as the CM said. “The present case is not fit for quashing… we are not expressing opinion on merit. You better go and face the trial,” said the court.

The cases against the duo were related to alleged irregularities in renewal of mining lease to the Jantakal Mining and allotment of sites to Vishwabharathi Housing Cooperative Society.

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