Shreyas H S
Daijiworld Media Network - Mysore
Mysore, Mar 30: In an interesting revelation, it has been found that a resident of Mysore, a former employee of the Palace, allegedly registered a site worth Rs 8.5 crore belonging to the scion of Mysore the late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar in his name, by producing false documents.
B K Sundar (80), a resident of Vidyaranyapuram, claims that the site (survey no 1) which is located near the Race Course of Mysore was transferred to him by the scion himself. Sundar was working as an employee in the palace and the land was given as an offering to him in 1961 by Jayachamaraja Wodeyar, he says.
In connection to this case, recently deputy Lokayukta B Adir Subash conducted a preliminary investigation following a complaint filed by lawyer C Chandrashekar on March 15.
B Adir Subhash speaking to Daijiworld said, on Friday March 28 he visited the sub-registrar's office and verified several documents pertaining to the case. He later summoned the registrar Girish to the government guest house and conducted an enquiry. It was learnt that on December 7, 2013 Girish had met the scion to get his signatures to hand over the site legally.
However, during the investigations, deputy Lokayukta learnt that the scion was not in Mysore that day (December 7). This information was provided by Wodeyar's wife, Promoda Devi and Palace board secretary Lakshmi Narayan.
In the preliminary investigations, it was found that the documents related to the land transfer were fake. The deputy Lokayukta then directed the officials to conducte further investigations. Action would be taken against Sundar, he added.
Twist in the tale
To dig deeper into the issue when daijiworld contacted historian J Nanjaraje Urs, he said it was surprising that the land with survey no 1 was given to Sundar in the year 1961 by Jayachamaraja Wodeyar, as there was no land belonging to the Mysore dynasty with that survey number at all!
"The then Delhi regime after surveying Mysore, had excluded lands with survey numbers 1, 2, and 3 from the list of property belonging to the Mysore dynasty in the year 1951. Hence the land may belong to the government," he pointed out.
According to Sundar the land was offered to him as a reward by Jayachamaraja Wodeyar for his loyalty while working as an employee in the palace. "But how can a land that did not belong to the Wodeyar be offered as a gift?" he questioned.
Signed three days before death
It is said that Sundar got the documents signed from Srikantadatta Wodeyar just three days before the latter’s death. A photograph of the late scion, his signature and a thumb impression in the documents were learned to be fake.
The scion who left Mysore after Dasara never returned to the city again. He breathed his last in Bangalore hospital on December 10, 2013.