Chamarajanagar: A Gujarat-based industrialist has accused Chamarajanagar Congress MLA C. Puttarangashetty of cheating in a case of purchase of land for mining.

Gujarat industrialist Kamlesh Kumar Gopaldas Patel has alleged that the MLA has cheated him of Rs. 9 crore by failing to pay the amount in full even after purchase of the stone quarry land.

Giving an account of the matter at a press meet held at Chamarajanagar yesterday, Kamlesh Kumar said that he purchased a black stone quarry from one Hitendra Joshi in April, 2018  that covered an area of 4.33 acres coming under Survey Numbers 335/1, 336/4, 336/6 and 339/1 of Terakanambi village in Gundlupet taluk of Chamarajanagar district.

After purchasing the land, he ran a black stone quarry till 2021, when some local leaders began to trouble him.

“I went to Chamarajanagar MLA C. Puttarangashetty, who is also a former Minister, to seek his help for putting a stop to the troubles, when the MLA said that as I (Kamlesh) was an outsider, locals would not allow me to run the quarry.

“Then he advised me to sell off the land to him (Puttarangashetty) for a sum of Rs. 12.54 crore and also gave me Rs. 1 crore as advance, while promising that he would get the Sale Deed done after payment of the balance money in full in six months. But Puttarangashetty failed to pay me the balance money and even started black stone quarrying in the said area since February on a full-scale.

“When questioned about this, the MLA’s son-in-law Ramachandra and his partner Shantakumar  summoned me to an advocate’s office and took the original sale agreement from me under the pretext of getting a photocopy. They failed to return me the original copy of the sale agreement and even threatened me.

“After some days, they gave me only Rs. 2.54 crore and again threatened me of dire consequences  if I demanded payment of the balance money of  Rs. 9 crore from them.

Thereafter I began to receive death threats, following which I lodged a complaint with the jurisdictional Terakanambi Police. Upset over this, the MLA’s kin has lodged a counter complaint accusing me of caste abuse,” Kamlesh said adding that the Police are not acting on his (Kamlesh) complaint.

As such, he has decided to lodge a complaint with the State and Union Governments against MLA Puttarangashetty for cheating him of Rs. 9 crore, he added.

Sundarraj, Ranganayaka and Hemanth were present at the press meet.

MLA Puttarangashetty reacts

Reacting to the allegations, MLA Puttarangashetty acknowledged that Kamlesh Kumar Gopaldas Patel had purchased the 4.33 acre stone quarry land at Terakanambi from Hitendra Joshi.

“But I have purchased only  the remaining part of the land belonging to Hitendra Joshi. I have paid a total of Rs. 3.54 crore to Kamlesh Kumar after entering into a sale agreement for a sum of Rs. 12.54 crore. I have started stone quarrying in the land that was purchased directly by me from Hitendra Joshi only since Friday and not since February as alleged. I am not running any quarry in the land that is mentioned  in the sale agreement entered with Kamlesh Kumar. Also, one must understand that there can be no Sale Deed without any Khata. But Kamlesh does not have any Khata of his land, which is a problem. I am ready to pay the balance money once Kamlesh gets the Khata and subsequently gets the Sale Deed done. I wish to say that Kamlesh has himself cheated me of Rs. 3.54 crore by failing to get the Khata of his land and Sale Deed executed. It has come to be known that Kamlesh has cheated some others too like this. I will expose Kamlesh with full details and supporting documents at a press meet which I would call shortly,” he said. The MLA further said that Kamlesh has lodged a Police complaint against his (Puttarangashetty) son-in-law and his partner in September and investigation would reveal the truth about Kamlesh’s allegations.