Deccan Herald: Bengaluru: Saturday,
April 16, 2016.
The Bangalore
Development Authority (BDA) has lodged a police complaint against some of its
unidentified officials and those in the Urban Development Department for
“fabricating” RTI documents against a senior police officer.
The complaint
filed at the Seshadripuram police station on April 12 says the documents were
fabricated with the “mala fide intent” of maligning Additional Director General
of Police Dr RP Sharma.
The story
goes back to 2012 when the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) started
investigating the Rs 1,539-crore fake bill scam and arrested a BBMP executive
engineer named Idaya Vendon.
A few days after
the arrest, former mayors P R Ramesh, Huchchappa J, M Ramachandrappa and K H N
Simha petitioned Amita Prasad, the then principal secretary of Urban
Development Department, on August 9, 2012. They accused Dr Sharma, who was
heading the BMTF then, of building a house in the BDA limits without the
agency’s approval. They attached an “RTI reply by the BDA” that stated that it
hadn’t sanctioned the building plan. The letter was sent to the chief
minister’s office for appropriate action the same day. The file was then moved
to the BDA commissioner for further action.
Since the
BMTF was entrusted with checking the violations of BBMP, BDA and BMRDA rules,
the state government removed Dr Sharma on the grounds that a person accused of
violating the building plan cannot carry out an investigation against himself.
When Dr Sharma moved the High Court and the Central Administrative Tribunal
(CAT) against the transfer, the government made the forged RTI document the
evidence against him. The tribunal, however, quashed the transfer and
reinstated Dr Sharma.
Dr Sharma
later sought documents about his transfer under the RTI, and the BDA replied
that the entire RTI document was fabricated.
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