Bangalore Development Authority appoints, then removes, accused’s wife as lawyer in site fraud case | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: In a twist exposing how deeply mismanaged Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has become, the civic agency, after filing a criminal complaint against a private broker for allegedly masterminding a land scam, ended up appointing his own wife to defend it in court. The decision has since been reversed.BDA’s vigilance wing had, in Dec 2020, unearthed a racket allegedly involving senior officials and private individuals who forged official documents to allot prime sites illegally. Four BDA staffers, including the deputy secretary, and a private individual had come under the scanner for operating a parallel BDA office out of a private building. Fake allotment letters, possession certificates, and measurement reports — complete with smuggled BDA seals — were seized. An FIR was later registered by Seshadripuram police under IPC Sections 409 and 468 (criminal breach of trust and forgery).But what shocked even senior insiders is that BDA appointed the wife of one of the accused as its panel advocate, to represent it in the high court case filed against her husband.Sources within BDA privately called the appointment “a blatant conflict of interest” and “an attempt to derail justice”. One senior officer said, “It’s unbelievable. How can the authority (BDA) that accused a person of forgery hire his wife to defend its case? Clearly, powerful hands are behind this.”When contacted, BDA commissioner P Mannivannan admitted that the appointment was a serious lapse. “I learned about it later and was told that the couple had separated. But once the implications were clear, we replaced her with another advocate. The earlier appointment was made by the chief law officer,” he explained.However, legal experts say the “separation” argument cannot justify such an oversight. “Even if they were estranged, the advocate’s past relationship with the main accused should have been an automatic disqualification,” said a senior lawyer.