Eight months ago, 54-year-old Venkatarayappa, a small farmer was a happy man. He owned two separate portions of land measuring 38 and 37 guntas respectively in Venkatapura village, around 20 km from the new Bangalore International Airport.

He was in a monetary crisis with a family member seriously ill. He had run up debts to keep his ragi cultivation going. He was looking to sell off his land to get out of debt when out of the blue a real estate broker Hanume Gowda approached him with an offer to buy it at the rate of Rs 18,500 per gunta.

Venkatarayappa was happy because he believed he had got a good deal since land in his village was going at around Rs 16,000 a gunta or Rs 6.4 lakh and acre (40 guntas is one acre). He signed an agreement with the broker for a token advance and after a few months went to the taluk office to register the property in the name of the new owner and accepted full payment.

“The registration document was in English. I cannot read English. I signed wherever I was asked to sign and the deal was closed,” says Venkatarayappa.

Today, Venkatarayappa is seething with anger. He has just learnt that his land was purchased by S N Srinivasa Setty, the brother of the former BJP housing minister in Karnataka, S N Krishnaiah Setty, and sold to the Karnataka Housing Board for a handsome sum of Rs 1.25 lakh per gunta (Rs 50 lakh per acre) to create a government housing project.

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