Bengaluru, Oct 9 (IANS) An Additional City Civil and Sessions Court in Bengaluru on Thursday has ordered the Karnataka Lokayukta to complete the probe in connection with the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) expeditiously, within two months. It also rejected the demand to change the investigation officer.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been named as accused number one and his wife is named as the accused number two in the case. Activist Snehamayi Krishna is the complainant in the case. The petitioner Krishna has challenged the clean chit given to CM Siddaramaiah and family members in the case and demanded change of investigation officer in the case.

The order of the court stated: “The application was filed by the complainant under Section 156(3) of Cr.P.C., requesting the court to issue directions to the investigating agency i.e., Karnataka Lokayukta, to change the investigating officer is hereby rejected.”

The court further stated, “Considering the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, the investigating agency is hereby directed to complete the investigation as expeditiously as possible and within an outer limit of two months from today without seeking for further extension of time to file the comprehensive report.”

However, the court has fixed the date of November 15 for furnishing the final report.

The MUDA case is related to the alleged illegal allotment of 14 sites to the Chief Minister’s wife under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of land gifted to her by her brother, the third accused. It is alleged that the Chief Minister’s wife had no legal title to this 3.16 acres of land.

The Special Court directed the filing of the PCR on September 25, 2024. The Lokayukta police in Mysuru had filed an FIR naming Siddaramaiah, his family members and others. The ED registered a case on October 1, 2024, and an investigation under the PMLA was taken up.

The Lokayukta had filed a closure report against CM Siddaramaiah, his wife Parvati, brother-in-law Mallikarjunaswamy and land owner J. Devaraju.

The Karnataka High Court on March 7 quashed the summons issued by the ED to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife, B.M. Parvathi and state Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh in connection with the MUDA case.

The petitioner, Snehamayi Krishna, filed a complaint with the Commissioner of the Central Vigilance Committee (CVC) on March 12 against senior IPS officers serving in the Karnataka Lokayukta, questioning the clean chit to the CM and his family members.

The petitioner had also filed a writ petition before the division bench of the Karnataka High Court, questioning the single bench order quashing his appeal for the CBI investigation into the MUDA case.

The ED filed an objection to this closure report on April 2, and petitioner Snehamayi Krishna also submitted a plea to the court questioning the Lokayukta’s investigation.

The investigating agency, in its objections, said: “The investigation undertaken revealed illegalities in the land acquisition, allotment, generation of proceeds of crime and routing/layering of the same, undue influence in allotment.”

“The evidence/information collected during the investigation under the PMLA, 2002, was shared with the Lokayukta police, Mysuru, through a letter. Presently, the Lokayukta has filed a report in this respect. The perusal of the report reveals that the evidence on illegalities in the process of denotification, the 3 acre 16 gunta land at Survey number 464 of Kesare village shared by this directorate to the Lokayukta police has not been considered in the report,” the ED had said.

Directorate of Enforcement (ED), in its official statement on September 18, stated that the investigation into the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam has revealed a large scale scam in allotment of MUDA sites, stated official release from the ED on Thursday.

The ED also stated that it is pertinent to mention that ED has already attached 252 illegally allotted MUDA sites so far, having a market value of approximately Rs 400 crore.

The statement further stated the ED investigation revealed a large scale scam in allotment of MUDA sites by flouting various statutes and government orders/ guidelines and by other fraudulent means.

–IANS

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