BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa facing bribery charges deposes before Lokayukta cops
Bengaluru, Mar 9: In eye of storm, BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa, who is an accused in a bribe case deposed before the Lokayukta police here on Thursday.
Flanked by a lawyer and policemen, the MLA from Channagiri constituency in Davangere reached the Lokayukta office.
According to Lokayukta sources, Deputy Superintendent of Police Antony John J K, who has been appointed as the investigation officer, is interrogating the MLA.
Virupakshappa, who resigned as the Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL) chairman, is accused of collecting bribe through his son from contractors supplying raw material for the KSDL.
The Lokayukta sleuths had arrested Virupakshappa's son Prashanth Kumar M V from the KSDL office on March 2 while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh from a contractor.
Prashanth Kumar is the chief accounts officer of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
Further searches led to the recovery of Rs 8.23 crore from the KSDL office and the MLA's house.
The interrogation will revolve around the cash haul in KSDL office and MLA's house.
Accepting that the huge cache of money found in his house belonged to his family, the BJP MLA, who got anticipatory bail on Tuesday told reporters, ''Our Taluk is known as the land of arecanut (supari). An ordinary farmer in our arecanut land has Rs five to six crore at home. I have 125 acres arecanut farm, arecanut market, and I have many other businesses as well. I will furnish the appropriate documents to the Lokayukta and get back my money.''
According to the Lokayukta sources, huge quantity of gold, silver ornaments were found in the MLA's house besides large investment in land.
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Mysuru royal family member asks villagers not to panic after her claim over 4,500 acres of land
Bengaluru (PTI): Pramoda Devi Wadiyar of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family on Monday said the residents of Siddayyanapura in Chamarajanagar district need not worry as she would not take any steps even if the land she has staked claim is found in the name of the royal family.
The assurance came after Wadiyar said over 4,500 acres of land in Siddayyanapura belonged to the royal family as per the agreement between the Maharaja of erstwhile Mysore and the Government of India in February 1951.
Recently when the state government moved ahead to declare Siddayyanapura as a revenue village, Wadiyar shot a letter to the Deputy Commissioner and Tehsildar of Chamarajanagar and other senior officials in the Government of Karnataka in this regard stating that the Mysuru royal family owns a parcel of land in the village, which they want to declare as a revenue village.
As the panicked villagers made a beeline before the Deputy Commissioner to resolve the issue and even claimed that the Mysuru Maharaja had gifted them land.
In order to clear confusion among people of Siddayyanapura, Wadiyar told reporters here, “We don’t know why the villagers are in fear. I am saying this now that they need not get scared now or even in future. I am giving them assurance that even if the Khatha comes in our name, they need not be afraid.”
She, however, complained that the Deputy Commissioner did not provide any document regarding the status of the property. Wadiyar wondered why people were in fear.
“I was away from the town and I was not aware of this issue at all. I learnt about this only when I read about it. I don’t know who created fear among them and I am not aware of what happened on the ground,” the successor of Mysuru royal family said.
Regarding the claim that the Mysuru Maharaja had given them land as gift, Wadiyar said, “If the Mysuru Maharaja had given them gift then do we need to snatch it back from them?”
She also said that the district authorities could have told her about the status of the land when they decided to make it a revenue village.
“Even if the land is transferred in our name, I will not create a situation that would scare them. I cannot give more assurance than this. We will do our best without the intervention of the State government, and there is no need for the government to intervene.
