ED had filed an ECIR on September 30 to register a case against Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and others.
A team of 12 ED officers on Friday raided the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) office in connection with the money laundering case against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. ED also searched the office of MUDA Commissioner Raghunandan and Special Land Acquisition.
The agency is said to have seized some documents. According to media reports, the agency will investigate all officials involved in the scam. This raid took place after the resignation of MUDA president K Mari Gowda.
ED came with the Central Paramilitary Force. The team also carried out raids in several other places in Mysore. However, these places are not directly linked to the Chief Minister or his family. CM Siddaramaiah is accused of irregularities in the allotment of 14 MUDA sites to his wife Parvati.
Opposition welcome, minister says – will provide all documents
MUDA comes under the Ministry of Urban Development, whose minister is B Suresh.
Both the BJP and the JD(S) welcomed the raids. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R Ashok denied any political motive behind the raid and said his party had not filed a complaint against the CM.
He said-
Those questioning the ED investigation should approach the court. Instead of questioning the court, Siddaramaiah says ED has no right to investigate. You train the SIT every day to investigate opposition leaders, have you been questioned? We say: investigate these questions. Do not politicize the investigation.
On the other hand, Karnataka Urban Development Minister B Suresh said, “This is not a raid. They had come to ask for documents. How can you call a request for documents a raid? Let us tell you that MUDA comes under his ministry.
Suresh added: Whatever documents are requested, they will be provided. Files of 8 lakh pages were handed over to the Desai committee. These will also be issued upon request. But this will not be done in a day, as photocopying 8 lakh pages may take a week.
The president of MUDA resigned 2 days ago
Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) chairperson Mari Gowda is close to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Two days ago, on October 16, MUDA president Mari Gowda had resigned. He had written in the resignation letter that the CM had asked him to resign. But he resigned not under any pressure, but for health reasons.
He took this step amid Lokayukta’s probe into the MUDA land scam. Gowda is close to CM Siddaramaiah. He has worked with them for over 40 years. Along with ED, Mysuru Lokayukta is also investigating the scam.
Since the investigation began, Siddaramaiah’s wife said she would return 14 sites donated by MUDA, while Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Rahul Kharge also returned 5 acres of land donated to her trust.
What is MUDA case In 1992, MUDA took land from farmers to develop residential areas. In exchange, under MUDA’s 50/50 incentive program, landowners received 50% of the developed land or an alternative site.
MUDA is accused of allotting 14 sites in an upscale area of Mysuru to Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi in 2022 in exchange for her 3.16 acres of land in Kasare village in Kasaba Hobli, Mysuru. The price of these sites was much higher than that of Parvati’s lands.
However, Parvati had no legal rights over this 3.16 acre land. This land was gifted to him by Parvati’s brother Mallikarjun in 2010. MUDA had developed the Devanur Stage-3 route without acquiring this land.
The investigation into the MUDA scam has been initiated by the Karnataka Lokayukta. Lokayukta had registered an FIR in the matter on September 27 this year. Siddaramaiah, his wife, brother-in-law BM Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju have been named in the FIR. After this, on September 30, ED took cognizance of the matter and filed an ECIR to register a case against Karnataka CM and others.
The BJP and JDS took out a seven-day march from Bengaluru to Mysuru from August 3 against the MUDA scam. JDS chief HD Kumaraswamy and Karnataka BJP president BY Vijayendra were also present there.
What are the allegations against Siddaramaiah?
The price of the Vijayanagar land that Siddaramaiah’s wife received as compensation from MUDA is much higher than that of her land in the entire village. Snehamayi Krishna filed a complaint against Siddaramaiah. In this, he accused Siddaramaiah of forging documents to claim the MUDA site as his family property. From 1998 to 2023, Siddaramaiah held influential positions as Deputy CM or CM of Karnataka. Although he was not directly involved in this scam, he had used his power to help his relatives, Mallikarjuna, brother of Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvati, who had illegally purchased 3 acres of denoted land in 2004. Siddaramaiah was Deputy CM of the Congress-JDS coalition government in Karnataka in 2004-2005. Under this program, landowners whose land was acquired by MUDA were allocated alternative sites of higher value as compensation. In addition, real estate agents have also been provided with land under this program. Revealing the land allotment scam, RTI activist said that in the last four years, over 6,000 sites were allotted under the 50:50 scheme, MP and spokesperson of the BJP, Sambit. Patra said it was a Rs 3,000-4,000 crore scam. Siddaramaiah’s family is one of them. Congress remains silent on this matter. Thanks to the Governor who ordered an investigation.
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CM ready to return Siddaramaiah land, says women from political families should not be dragged into controversy
On September 30, just hours after the ED registered the case, CM Siddaramaiah’s wife BN Parvati offered to return the land received as compensation to MUDA. BN Parvati wrote a letter to the MUDA commissioner, which was shared by the CM’s office late in the night.