Mysore:The Lokayukta sleuths on Friday unearthed a fraudulent land deal to usurp property worth Rs 8.5 crore belonging to the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar.
Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi, addressing mediapersons here, said the suspects, including a sub-registrar, fabricated documents, especially of the Palace, and had forged the signature of Srikantadatta Wadiyar to execute a gift deed in the name of a private person.
The gift deed was allegedly executed by the late maharaja’s son Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar three days before his death on December 10, 2013. The alleged illegal deal came to light when Chandrashekar, an advocate, filed a complaint with the Lokayukta on March 15, Justice Adi said.
As per the documents, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja wrote to the office of the sub-registrar (East) on December 7, 2013, to register the gift deed pertaining to a piece of land measuring 250×250 ft (Survey no 1, Kasaba hobli), on MG Road.
The gift deed was executed by Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar in 1961 to B K Sundar, aged 80 and son of Kunjappa, a Palace estate worker then and resident of Vidyaranyapuram. Later a confirmation deed was executed between both the parties (Srikantadatta and Sundar) on November 22, 2013. Accordingly, sub-registrar Girish registered the property in the name of Sundar.
Justice Adi said that sub-registrar Girish, who is prima facie found guilty, claimed that he met the scion twice in December last year. During the inquiry, Girish claimed that on Wadiyar’s direction, he met the scion twice – at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on December 3 and at Mysore Race Club on December 7, as Wadiyar was advised rest due to ill-health. When the Lokayukta sleuths vetted the details, the said schedule of meetings was found to be fictitious.
Besides, Srikantadatta’s wife Pramodadevi and her secretary Lakshminarayan too confirmed that Wadiyar was not at MRC on December 7, as he went to Bangalore soon after Dasara, where he remained till his death on December 10. Lakshminarayan also confirmed that “no worker by the name Sundar existed at that time.”
Justice Adi said there is no mention of any such meetings between Wadiyar and the sub-registrar, even in the official’s movement registry, a norm followed by the government staff at the time of going out on official duty.
Claiming ignorance, Girish said that soon after he got to know about the deed in the making, he had indeed met Wadiyar on December 3 in Bangalore. While on December 7, he completed the procedure after collecting the stamp duty and registration charges totalling Rs 56 lakh.
Justice Adi said he is contemplating recommending action against Girish.
