Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy, who has acquired government land by making a false claim that he was a landless labourer, said Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka helped him in getting the land.
The mayor told Deccan Herald that in 2004, R Ashoka, who was then the Uttarahalli MLA, headed the Bagarhukum Regularisation and Recommendation Committee in Bangalore South, and recommended his name for allotment of the land.
Murthy was reacting to a report in Deccan Herald that he and his wife Prabha suppressed facts in order to get eight acres of grazing land at Somanahalli in Uttarhalli hoblie near here allotted to them. Only landless farmer labourers are entitled to get land.
Ashoka was not available for his comment on Murthy’s charge.
“I am not alone in getting a piece of Bagarhukum land. There are many other high profile people, including some MLAs, who benefited. I don't want to name them,” said Murthy.
He insisted that he alone should not be held guilty for the goof-up. “All those who allotted land to me, right from the tahsildar, revenue inspectors and sub-divisional magistrate to the deputy commissioner were equally guilty.”
However, he justified the allotment of “Bagarhukum” land to him saying that his father, who was a retired headmaster in a village school, did farming on 30 acres near Hosur. “We still have land in our native place, but we rarely go there these days due to my hectic schedule,” the mayor said. He did not, however, explain why he tried to acquire eight acres of land when he did not even have time to visit 30 acres of his family property.