Bangalore, Sep 5 (IANS) The Karnataka Lokayukta (ombudsman) court Monday directed former state chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and his wife and lawmaker H.D. Anita to appear before it Sep 7 in a graft case related to renewal of mining lease and allotment of residential site by a housing society.


Granting exemption from appearance for two more days on health grounds, judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao directed Kumaraswamy and Anita to be present in the trial court without fail Wednesday (Sep 7).

The judge also rejected their counsel Hazmath Pasha’s application for exemption from appearance for 15 days as their anticipatory bail applications is scheduled for hearing in the Karnataka High Court Tuesday.

The additional city civil court judge, who also functions as the Lokayukta court for speedy trial of graft cases, Aug 30 rejected the anticipatory bail applications of the accused and ordered the duo to appear before him Monday in response to summons he issued Aug 8 on a private complaint filed by city-based advocate Vinod Kumar.

The complaint alleged that Kumaraswamy renewed the mining lease of Jantakkal Enterprises Ltd against rules and illegally allotted land to a housing society, which in return gave a residential site in Bangalore to Anita when he was heading the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government in the state during 2006-2007.

Opposing the applications for exemption from appearance, complainant’s counsel R.L. Patil told the court that the accused were deliberately delaying the trial proceedings on the pretext of ill-health when they were actually leading a normal life.

Anita represents the Madhugiri assembly constituency in Tumkur district, about 70 km from Bangalore.

Kumaraswamy, who is the regional party’s state unit president, is a member of the Lok Sabha from Ramanagara, about 60 km from Bangalore.

The complaint was based on the final investigative report submitted by former Lokayukta Justice (retd) N. Santosh Hegde to the state government July 27 on the multi-crore mining scam.

The report also named Kumaraswamy for granting lease to two mining firms violating norms.

The ex-chief minister is alleged to have allotted 70 acres to Vishwabharathi Housing Cooperative Society in Bangalore. The society in return favoured his wife Anita with a 100ft x 150ft residential plot.

In a related development, Jantakkal managing director Vinod Goel filed an application for bail as he too was named in the complaint as the third accused in the graft case.

The court asked the complainant’s counsel (Patil) to file objections to Goel’s bail application by Wednesday when the case will be taken up for further hearing.