Bengaluru: The Lokayukta police have registered an FIR against the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chakravarthy Mohan in connection with ‘illegal’ allotment of industrial land in Peenya.

The Lokayukta police on Monday searched the KIADB office and seized files pertaining to the allotment.

The complaint, filed by RTI activist Dinesh Kallahalli, accuses Mohan of illegally allotting a prime piece of land in Peenya Industrial Area to a Tamil Nadu-based businessman for a throwaway price.

Chakravarthy Mohan has been booked under Section 13 (1) (c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The complainant stated that the site had to be allotted in an auction, since it was a developed industrial area. However, the CEO allotted it to Venkateshwara Engineering Works, circumventing auction rules. 

On November 6, 2013, Venkateshwara Engineering Works filed an application requesting to allot the site, between a road and plot number 480 (C) in Peenya 4th Phase. 

According to the circular issued by the KIADB in 2013, all vacant plots available in developed industrial areas should be alloted through public auction considering the value of the land and the development of the area. Despite this, KIADB allotted 2,300 sq ft of land for a meagre sum of Rs 450 per sq ft. The KIADB has allotted the plot to Venkateshwara Engineering Works within six months after it placed a request.

The first information report stated that the chief executive officer had illegally allotted the site to the owner of Venkateshwara Engineering Works, Gunashekharan, by violating rules.  

The complaint also alleged that the CEO has taken a bribe of Rs one crore as gratification to allot the site to Venkateshwara Engineering Works.