Mangaluru:  Karnataka Forests Minister and  Dakshina Kannada district-in-charge B Ramanath Rai today  denied allegations by a former Congress leader that he had  grabbed government land in the district.

Speaking to reporters here, he said the charges of  Harikrishna Bantwal, who recently joined BJP, were baseless.

He said he was in possession of only the property  given to him by his family.

Rai said he had 15.22 acres of land at Kallige given to him by his father and some land bought from his brothers and sisters.

There was no point in the allegations that government land had been grabbed, he said.

A person who had joined a party which defeated him six  times was now raising the allegations, Rai said.