KAS officer raided by ACB over 'illegal' transfer of Rs 200-cr gomala land

K Ranganath, the chief manager of Karnataka Public Land Corporation Limited, was raided by the ACB on Friday as part of an investigation into the illegal transfer of government land to private individuals when he was the assistant commissioner of the Bengaluru North taluk.

Forty-two officers from the anti-corruption watchdog split into five teams to conduct simultaneous raids on the KAS officer’s houses in Bengaluru’s Judicial Layout and Doddaballapur’s Dattatreya Kalyana Mantapa Road, the office of Kanaka Shri Trust, Akshaya School in Doddaballapur, his relative’s house in Nagarabhavi and the Bengaluru North revenue subdivisional office where Ranganath was previously posted as an assistant commissioner.

The raid was later expanded to two more places in Doddaballapur, both belonging to his relatives.

The ACB later released a statement detailing what was found during the raids. It claims to have found that Ranganath, his parents and one of their Benami accounts had done transactions worth crores of rupees in Aruna Cooperative Bank Ltd, Yelahanka New Town.

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The ACB says by searching Ranganath’s office, it seized 16 files related to irregularities in the handover of the said government land to private individuals. An investigation is currently underway to verify the property made in the tainted officer’s name, his family members and the Benami.

What’s the case about?

In July 2020, N Manjunatha Prasad, the-then principal secretary of the Revenue Department, had recommended suspending Ranganath after an enquiry found irregularities related to 37 acres of government (gomala) land worth around Rs 200 crore during the short time that he was the Bengaluru North assistant commissioner from March 26 and June 26, 2020.

The ACB took up the case and asked the government for permission to prosecute Ranganath. But the government turned down the ACB’s request. The Public Accounts Committee condemned the government’s decision and sought a detailed report.

The government, however, acted on Prasad’s recommendation to transfer Ranganath.
According to the report, out of the 116 orders passed by Ranganath, 15 deal with 37.10 acres of gomala land located in Kanalli, Lakshmipura, Kodigehalli, Gowdahalli, Bidarahalli, Kyalasanahalli, Bhoganahalli, Bettahalasuru and Sathanur villages.

The ACB says Ranganath should have checked the authenticity of the documents considering that the land in question was gomala. He should also have sought a report from the tahsildar. He did neither. This suggests he was hand in glove with the land mafia.

The ACB said it carried out the raid after opening a case as per a government order.

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