High Court upholds conviction of seven in land case

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has upheld the conviction of seven accused, including the officials of I-T Department and middlemen in a land case. The accused tried to victimise late Mysuru scion Srikanta Datta Narasimha Raja Wadiyar by auctioning 10 acres of land in Mysuru for a throwaway price as he failed to pay tax, to gain ill-gotten money. 

The HC dismissed the criminal appeals filed against the conviction order passed by the Special Court for CBI cases on August 30, 2010. They were convicted for the offences punishable under the provisions of IPC as well as Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The criminal appeals were filed by C Subbarayan, the then I-T inspector, Bengaluru, B N Rajanna, native of Srirangapatna, among others. Of the 10 accused, Tax Recovery Officer Shivanna and one A Narasimha Murthy died during trial and Upper Division Clerk K Ramanna, I-T Department, died during the pendency of criminal appeal.  

Justice N K Sudhindrarao upheld the conviction and dismissed their criminal appeals. “Proposing `2 lakh per acre as reserve price is a dubious, incorrigible and a well-planned evil act, besides punishable.This is an ideal case to show conspiracy is hatched, system itself is cheated, misuse of laws is effected and white-collared crime is committed. The very act of arranging the auction was a trap to cover legality for monetary benefit,” Justice Rao said while confirming the sentence.