Justice K Govindarajulu stayed further proceedings when a criminal petition filed by Revanna, second son of former Prime Minister H D Devegowda, seeking the quashing of proceedings against him in the complaint filed by BJP Yuva Morcha Member Secretary Ravi Kumar before the Lokayukta court came up before him.
Revanna had also sought quashing of the subsequent order of probe against him by the Lokayukta court on April 16.
On April 7, Ravi Kumar filed the complaint against former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh, Revanna, Kavita Balakrishna, wife of H D Balakrishna, another son of Devegowda, and others for illegal denotification of government land for "pecuniary gain".
Apart from Dharam Singh, Revanna and Kavita, 10 other land owners are accused in the case.
Senior Counsel Hazmath Pasha representing Revanna argued that Revanna was not a "party to the denotification process at all" and submitted that it was his sister-in-law, Kavita Balakrishna who purchased the land from the landowner.
"Merely because his sister-in-law purchased the denotified land, he (Revanna) cannot be made party to it", Pasha submitted and therefore, contended that the proceedings against him ordered by the Lokayukta court were liable to be quashed.
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Ravi Kumar in his complaint charged Dharam Singh, now Congress MP from Bidar, of illegally denotifying 10.17 acres of land in Uttarahalli, Bangalore North Taluk, allocated for formation of Banashankari 6th stage by Bangalore Development Authority, on Oct 5, 2005 when he was the Chief Minister.
He alleged that out of this 10 acres, 17 guntas (one gunta is about 1,086 square feet), 2 acres 20 guntas was sold to Kavita Balakrishna for Rs 50 lakh for which the sale deed was executed on December 9, 2005. Kavita in turn sold this land to Sobha Developers on August 1, 2006 for Rs 4 crore.
On the same day, the remaining land was also sold to Sobha Developers by the land owners for a whopping sum, he alleged.