By IANS,
Bangalore: Karnataka’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday alleged that former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s family has amassed known assets of Rs.1,500 crore through corrupt means.
“The estimated worth of the known assets owned by the Gowda family, including (former Karnataka chief minister) H.D. Kumaraswamy is about Rs.1,500 crore. The family owns 320 acres of ‘benami’ (in fake or others names) land – 240 acres in and around Bangalore and 80 acres at their home town Holenarsipur (in Hassan district),” the BJP said in a booklet containing a chargesheet against the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leader’s family.
Besides huge tracts of land, houses, commercial complexes and residential sites, the Gowda family members had floated 24 companies, it said.
Deve Gowda has four sons, two of whom are in politics, and two daughters.
Gowda, Kumaraswamy and Gowda’s elder son H.D. Revanna, the JD-S leader in the state assembly, have been on the warpath against Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa ever since he took over as BJP’s first chief minister in south India in May 2008.
The trio, especially Kumaraswamy, have been frequently releasing documents charging Yeddyurappa with corruption and illegal land acquisition.
“Gowda and his family members are known to be political opportunists, putting themselves and their personal interests above the state, the party and their allies. Former state chief ministers such as Ramakrishna Hegde, S.R. Bommai, J.H. Patel, S.M. Krishna and Dharam Singh have been victims of the family’s machinations,” party spokesperson Nirmala Sitaraman told reporters at the chargesheet’s release.
Accusing Kumaraswamy of recklessly recommending mining leases and clearing several files in haste during the last 15 days of his 20-month tenure as chief minister of the JD-S-BJP coalition government in October 2007, the chargesheet said Gowda junior had denotified lands en masse and granted hundreds of sites to his kith and kin.
“Though the family and its party (JD-S) were punished by the people in the 2008 assembly elections and subsequent polls, they have refused to accept the mandate and instead have been attempting to destabilise, malign and stall the functioning of the democratically-elected popular government,” Sitaraman alleged.
Urging the family to come clean on the sources of their disproportionate wealth, JD-S state unit president K.S. Eshswarappa said the Gowdas own an explanation to the people as to how they have accumulated such huge assets by misusing their political power to enrich themselves.
Within an hour of releasing the chargesheet, Kumaraswamy hit back at the BJP and dared its government to initiate action against his family instead of leveling what he termed wild allegations.
“This government has not found any evidence of illegal activity by our family. If it has any morality left, it should prosecute us,” Kumaraswamy told reporters at Mandya, about 80 km from Bnagalore.