Rajya Sabha MP Lahar Singh Siroya, alleging “misuse, manipulation, and misappropriation” of waqf lands in Karnataka, has said that he will hand over 40,000 pages of documents to Union Law Minister Kiran Rijiju and Joint Parliamentary Committee chairman Jagadambika Pal for further investigation.

The documents, obtained through RTI and sealed by the Karnataka Lokayukta, reportedly expose large-scale irregularities in waqf land dealings across Karnataka, Mr. Siroya claimed. He stated that these records, originally submitted to the Karnataka Upa Lokayukta-led commission in 2012, were “sidelined” by the Congress regime in 2016.

The wakf land controversy took centre stage in the State after the Karnataka Waqf Board issued notices to farmers in Honawad village seeking their eviction from the land. As soon the news about notices became public, the issue snowballed into a row. The Opposition BJP started a campaign against the Congress saying that farmers were being “evicted” from their lands. The government later withdrew the notices.

Though Mr. Siroya said that though he has not fully examined the documents, a preliminary look reveals how “influential political leaders have compromised the interests of the minority community they were meant to protect.” He also claimed that a crucial report by Justice N. Anand on waqf land mismanagement had “vanished” after the Siddaramaiah-led government withdrew the inquiry order in 2016.

He urged the Karnataka government to table the Justice Anand Commission report in the Assembly and called for retrieving “missing files” related to waqf properties in Kalaburagi.