Bengaluru realtor paid bribes to MUDA ex-chief Dinesh Kumar
BENGALURU: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation has revealed that 48 sites illegally allotted by former commissioner of Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), G T Dinesh Kumar, to members of Chamundeshwari Sarvodaya Sangha at Dattagalli Layout were obtained through a general power of attorney (GPA) by the Bengaluru-based realtor N Manjunath. The latter, in turn, routed the money to Dinesh through loans or advances to his relatives and associates. Manjunath got GPAs for the sites from Sangha members by applying undue pressure. An allottee had told the ED adjudicating authority that the sites were obtained from him under undue pressure. The investigation found that addresses of 12 allottees out of 48 were not available. Their addresses were shown as different areas in Mysuru, Bengaluru and Hassan. Sources said that Manjunath would sell these sites and route the earnings to Dinesh Kumar by giving loans or advances to his relatives and associates. Just to mention, three sites were transferred by Manjunath to three close relatives of Dinesh Sathish G, Hoysala BR and S C Vinodh Kumar through sale agreements for which money was paid by Manjunath, who resides in Dollars colony of J P Nagar in Bengaluru. He paid Rs 14.21 lakh advance for each site for which sale consideration was fixed at Rs 36 lakh. Further, Manjunath had paid Rs 2.90 crore to Dineshs relatives -- Chikkaboraiah, Vinod Kumar, SC Raghu, Gayathri, S C Anupama and Lavanya. Manjunath had transferred a site at Vijayanagar 4th Stage to Shivanna, a close friend of K Marigowda -- former of MUDA chairman, through a settlement deed on May 22, 2024. Because of the personal and cordial relationship, no sale consideration was envisaged, sources said. The settlement deed states that khata for this site was issued by MUDA to Manjunath a day after the settlement deed was entered into, sources said. But Shivanna, in his statement to ED, claimed that he worked as a labourer at a layout belonging to Manjunath. He supplied stone dust and got a site in return. But he did not provide any details about the stone dust supply. Manjunath had been filing income tax returns every year, but no details of transactions with Shivanna were found, the probe pointed out. Shivanna also did not disclose the receipt of the site from Manjunath in his income tax returns, sources said. When ED confronted Manjunath, he could not provide any plausible explanation for making the payment.
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