By IANS,
Bangalore : The family of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda owns huge “benaami (by proxy)” property in and around Bangalore as well as their home district Hassan, Karnataka’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party charged Tuesday.
The BJP released a “charge sheet” against the Gowda family hoping it will “silence” the Janata Dal-Secular president and his sons from levelling “baseless allegations” against its Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.
BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman and state BJP president K.S. Eshwrappa told reporters that “at least now the Gowda family should stop levelling baseless charges against Yeddyurappa and allow his government to function effectively”.
The charge sheet was released a day after Gowda’s son H.D. Kumaraswamy repeated on oath at a temple his claim that Yeddyurappa had tried to “buy my silence” thorough an emissary by “offering money and to do whatever work I wanted”.
The Gowda family is alleged to own over 320 acres of land in ‘benami’ (fake names or in others names), around 240 acres in Bangalore and surrounding areas and about 80 acres in Holenarsipur in Hassan, about 200 km from Bnaglaore.
The family is also said to own huge commercial properties in Bangalore.
Deve Gowda has four sons, two of whom are in politics, and two daughters.
He and his two politician-sons — Kumaraswamy, a former chief minister, and H.D. Revanna, leader of JD-S in the assembly — have been on the warpath against Yeddyurappa ever since he took over as BJP’s first chief minister in south India in May 2008.
The three, particularly Kumaraswamy, have been releasing documents frequently charging Yeddyurappa with corruption and illegal land acquisition.
Kumaraswamy hit back at Yeddyurappa and BJP saying “instead of releasing such chargesheets, the BJP government should initiate action against our family”.
“This government has not found any evidence of illegal activity by our family. If it has any morality left, it should prosecute us,” he told reporters at Mandya, about 80 km from Bangalore.