MUDA case: K’taka CM Siddaramaiah files appeal before division bench of HC

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has filed an appeal before the division bench of the High Court, challenging the decision of a single judge bench in connection with the MUDA site allotment case that had come as a setback to him.

The bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna had on September 24 dismissed the CM’s petition challenging Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s approval for a probe against him in the case, observing that the gubernatorial order nowhere “suffers from want of application of mind”.

The Chief Minister had challenged the legality of Gehlot’s sanction for the investigation against him in the alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife Parvathi B M by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in a prime locality.

Following the High Court order, a Special Court here on the very next day had ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah, and directed to file the investigation report by December 24.

The Special Court exclusively to deal with criminal cases related to former and elected MPs/MLAs had issued the order directing the Lokayukta police in Mysuru to initiate an investigation on the complaint filed by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna.

Siddaramaiah, his wife, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju — from whom Swamy had purchased a land and gifted it to Parvathi — and others have been named in the FIR registered by the Mysuru-located Lokayukta police establishment on September 27.

Subsequently, Parvathi had written to MUDA to cancel 14 sites allotted to her and the MUDA had accepted it.

On September 30, the ED filed an enforcement case information report (ECIR) to book the CM and others taking cognisance of a recent Lokayukta FIR.

In the MUDA site allotment case, it is alleged that 14 compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah’s wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru (Vijayanagar Layout 3rd and 4th stages), which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been “acquired” by MUDA.

The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where it developed a residential layout.

Under the controversial scheme, MUDA allotted 50 per cent of developed land to the land losers in lieu of undeveloped land acquired from them for forming residential layouts.

It is alleged Parvathi had no legal title over this 3.16 acres of land at survey number 464 of Kasare village, Kasaba hobli of Mysuru taluk.