The 23rd additional city civil and sessions court judge Chandrashekar B Hipparag on Thursday recorded a complaint against home and transport minister

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R Ashoka in a case related to the illegal denotification of land by political bigwigs.

This comes after complaints against chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy.

A private complaint was registered by Manjunath M, an RTI activist before the court. “As an RTI activist, I found out that the men in power were misusing their powers for illegal monetary gains. In order to ensure that the common man is not affected, I filed the complaint,” Manjunath said.

In the complaint, Manjunath accused Ashoka of illegally acquiring land which was already acquired by the government.

The complaint accused Ashoka and 12 other land owners of Lottegollahalli, with the help of political bigwigs had caused a loss of Rs26 crore to the state exchequer.

In 1978, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had acquired properties 10/1 and 10/11F in Lottegollahalli for the development of Raj Mahal Vilas Layout from 12 owners. Although the said property was in possession of the BDA after its acquisition, Ashoka in 2003 and 2007 had got the property registered in his name. In 2009, when Ashoka became the minister, he misused his powers and denotified nine and 14 guntas of land, respectively.

Accusing the minister of misusing his powers, Manjunath asked the court to take legal action against him at the earliest. The court after recording the complaint posted the case for further hearing on May 17, despite the counsel completing his arguments.