In a not-so-nice turn of events for Ashok Kheny’s Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises, which is building the controversial and much-delayed Bengaluru-Mysore Expressway, Lokayukta court judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao on Thursday ordered that all the toll that the company has collected in the last two years on its link and peripheral road be attached. The judge also ordered a comprehensive investigation into the alleged large-scale illegalities in the project, including into the role of former chief ministers Deve Gowda, S.M. Krishna and B.S. Yeddyurappa.
The judge’s orders were made on activist T.J. Abraham’s interlocutory application (IA), along with his main complaint, that NICE had failed to complete the road before March 2006 as per the agreement and had hence lost legal authority to collect toll.
The complainant had argued that the road connecting one part of the city to another was the responsibility of the BDA, that NICE had obtained authorization to collect toll by “illegal, corrupt” methods and had even prevented the BDA from building its own Ring Road portion. “The BDA does not collect any kind of toll on any of its ring roads, and NICE has no legal authority at all to do so,’’ Mr Abraham contended.