“Atleast 10 ministers of the Karnataka government would go behind bars if the Wakf Board Land Scandal report is tabled,” says Anwar Manipaddy, former chairman of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission and BJP leader.
In February 2016, the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High court asked the assembly to table the report. And when that wasn’t done, the court issued a contempt notice against Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav and Principal Secretary Syed Saleem Adoni, says Manipaddy.
In March 2016, BJP brought up the issue in the Legislative Council demanding the government to table the report .However, the government kept stalling it saying it should be done by law minister T B Jayachandra who had gone to Shivamogga to attend a convocation.
“I don’t understand why Jayachandra needs to be present!” exclaims Manipaddy, who believes that it was just another tactic by the Congress to stall the tabling of the report.
History of the scam:
Manipaddy says that the scam started sometime in early 1970s and it was spread across the state.
Over 40-50% of the land allotted for Wakf board was embezzled says the report. Based on the registrar’s assessment of the land in 2012, over Rs 2.3 lakh crore had been de-notified and were either used for personal use or sold to land mafia.
“These encroachers have sold the land to some big private education institutions, built malls and apartments. Some of them even sold the land during elections and distributed the money among them.”
Value and who is involved:
“The market value is seven times the amount, which makes it bigger than even the 2G scam that took the country by a storm in 2012,” he said.
Ninety percent of the scamsters involved were Congress leaders, especially the Muslim leaders who worked hand in glove with the Wakf board, alleged Manipaddy.
Dharam Singh, former MP Qamarul Islam, MLA Tanveer Sait, former miniters Jaffer Sherif, MLA NA Hariss, Roshan Baig, and minister of infrastructure Rahman Khan are some of the leaders named in the report for their alleged involvement.
Long due tabling of the report
Manipaddy came out with the report in 2012 and was to be tabled in the February-March Belgaum session in the same year.
It never happened because the then opposition party, Congress, initially said the report needed to be looked into by a privileged committee comprising of the advocate general and legal luminaries.
In 2014, the cabinet approved the recommendations given by Manipaddy in the report.
One, to organise a committee to take back lost land based on the 1998 SC ruling that “once a Wakf land always a Wakf land”;
Two, make District commissioners look into the lost land;
Three, Take over the Wakf property and suspend the institution for a year so that there is no interference during the investigation and;
Four, Pass on the case to Lokayukta.
After Siddaramaiah came to power in 2013, they continuously claimed Manipaddy’s report to be false, despite the council chairman asking thrice in the last 36 months for the report to be tabled.