Exposed! MiD DAY first reported the scam in February, and the  Legislative Council has taken it up now seven months later

A day after legislators waved copies of MiD DAY and sought action in the BDA alternative sites scandal case, doubts persist that the government is shielding the guilty.

Opposition leaders urged a joint house committee inquiry in the Legislative Council, but chief minister Yeddyurappa, who holds the urban development portfolio, said the superintendent of police, Special Task Force, BDA, would conduct the probe. That has left everyone sceptical.

Three months only?

Home minister V S Acharya read out the CM's written statement and said he would come out with a report in three months.

"Three months? The superintendent of police has not been able to crack the case in the last six months," said B M Shivakumar, who had brought the scam to light using the Right to Information Act.

That is largely true. The superintendent of police, entrusted with the case six months ago, had cancelled a couple of sites fraudulently allotted as alternative ones, leaving hundreds of other such allotments untouched.
 
The MiD DAY exposé resulted in almost all senior BDA officials being transferred. While secretary Rajashekar was moved out in March, commissioner M K Shankaralinge Gowda's head rolled a little later. Superintendent of police Shivarama Reddy was transferd out last week.
 
"How can we expect an unbiased inquiry from an office that is part of the BDA?" wondered Shivakumar. "The superintendent of police's office has become a hub of corruption. A probe from a neutral body is what we need," he told MiD DAY.

"It's just a cover-up," said Mallanaguada Nadagouda, MLC. "But let's wait till the probe is completed. If we are not satisfied, we will continue our fight," he added.

How they looted you

Crooks approached a genuine site allottee and entered into a sale agreement. 

They applied to the BDA for an alternative site, claiming falsely that the original site was disputed.  They got prime sites in exchange. 
 
They sold such alternative sites at market prices, and made a killing. Tax payer lost money, BDA lost money.

What MiD DAY found

With help from someone inside the BDA, a mystery family was exchanging cheap sites for expensive ones, and making millions on the sly.

MiD DAY uncovered a racket involving the purchase of 80 BDA sites, and found that the loot ran into at least a hundred crore.

Since June 2007, the BDA has allotted 837 "alternative sites", and it now appears, hundreds of them fraudulently. 

A single family figured in 80 transactions, and was in some way involved in buying and selling alternative sites.