Former chief minister and ad-hoc president of Janata Dal Secular H.D. Kumaraswamy accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of trying to plant evidence against Mysuru BJP MP Pratap Simha’s younger brother Vikram Simha in the tree felling case.
On Friday, talking to presspersons, Kumaraswamy endorsed Simha’s claims and said the Hassan case (arrest of Vikram Simha) was a clear case of “gross misuse” of power by the Congress government in Karnataka. “The chief minister is trying to silence his political opponent Pratap Simha, who is a vocal critic,” alleged Kumaraswamy.
Last week, Vikram Simha, accused of illegally felling 126 trees on a forest land in Hassan district was arrested from Bengaluru and later released on bail. Pratap Simha claimed that the arrest was “politically motivated” and a “ploy” of Siddaramaiah to tarnish his image as the latter was hoping to field his son Yathindra from Mysuru in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
“Vikram Simha is not the owner of the land in question. He had only taken it on lease for ginger farming, from January 24, 2024. The land owner Jayamma fell some wild trees and although the FIR did not mention Vikram Simha's name, he was arrested for the offence on December 28. The FIR mentioned only Jayamma and Rakesh Shetty (landowners) as accused no. 1 and 2. Simha’s name was added as accused no.3 later with the ill-intention of framing him," Kumaraswamy charged.
"Heeding a local goon, the CM tried to fix a false case against Simha. He made a call to the PCCF in this regard and the call records are enough evidence to prove it. In fact, the CM asked forest officials to cut down high-value ‘beete mara’ (Rosewood) trees from Ghendekere forest area and dump them in the private land to frame Simha. And, five forest officials including DFO Mohan Kumar, a Dalit officer, were suspended when they refused to do it,” alleged Kumaraswamy.
Elaborating on the case, Kumaraswamy stated that the land measuring 40 acres and 38 guntas in Nandegowdanahalli in Belur, Hassan is being claimed as forest land although it has already been distributed among 16 families, who hold the title deeds for the land.
“Jayamma, daughter of Rakesh Shetty is the owner of four acres and two guntas, which Simha had taken on lease. The forest officials booked an offence only against two individuals – Jayamma and Rakesh Shetty based on a (mahazar) report given by the tahsildar. The forest officials gave the two accused bail at their office but arrested Vikram Simha before the magistrate. After the magistrate rapped them, they sought his bail to save their face,” claimed Kumaraswamy. He added that in a senior forest officers’ meeting convened by the chief minister earlier this week, the officers had advised the CM against suspending the officers.
Further, Kumaraswamy slammed Siddaramaiah for suspending a Dalit officer (DFO) and said, “Siddaramaiah claims to be the leader of Ahinda and now Dalits. Why did he suspend an honest Dalit officer?" Kumaraswamy alleged the DFO was forced to pay a huge sum, in lakhs, as a bribe to the local MLA for the posting as the latter had collected the transfer order copy from the government(DPAR).