The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) to inform the action taken on a complaint lodged against K. Ranganath, the then Assistant Commissioner, Bengaluru North sub-division, on the allegation of illegally granting government gomala land worth hundreds of crores to private persons.
Also, the court directed the government to inform the action taken based on an inquiry report, submitted in July by the Principal Secretary (Revenue Department), in which illegalities committed by Mr. Ranganath were pointed out while recommending initiation of disciplinary action against him.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty issued the direction on a PIL petition filed by Krishna Ramaiah, a resident of the city.
The petitioner has sought a direction from the court to entrust the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The inquiry report of the Principal Secretary had pointed out that Mr. Ranganath, who served in the post between March 26 and June 26, 2020, had passed several orders of which 15 were related to claims by private parties on about 37 acres of government gomala land.
The report pointed out that Mr. Ranganath had passed the orders in favour of private persons without examining the original records and sans calling reports from the tahsildar while terming the instances as “land grabbing” acts.