MUDA case: Lokayukta officials upset with ED for sharing ‘confidential’ info with media

Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate sharing information regarding the irregularities in the MUDA site allotment scam with media has not gone down well with the Lokayukta institution as they found it “unprofessional and unethical”.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his wife Parvathi B M, his brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and others have been booked in a case registered by the Lokayukta police on the direction of a special court.

A senior Lokayukta officer said such “extremely confidential matters” should never be shared with media when the case was under investigation.

The ED is also probing the MUDA site allotment case along with the Lokayukta police based on a complaint by activist Snehamayi Krishna.

Parvathi is accused of illegally obtaining 14 MUDA sites in the upmarket of Mysuru city in lieu of ‘acquisition’ of three acres and 16 guntas of land in Kesare village.

“We have received the information they (ED) have shared under 66 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It is sharing of information and the sharing of information between one investigative agency and another investigative agency, especially when the matter is under investigation, is an extremely confidential matter,” a top Lokayukta officer told PTI.

The ED on Tuesday said that evidence of several irregularities have been detected in the transfer of 14 sites by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to Parvathi, the wife of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The federal agency, in a recent communication sent to the Karnataka Lokayukta department, also claimed that its probe has also found that MUDA had “illegally” allotted a total of 1,095 sites in benami and other such transactions.

There was “contravention” of statutory guidelines” in the land transfer to Parvathi and evidence of “tampering”, violation of office procedures, usage of “undue” favour and influence and “forging” of signatures have been detected during the Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering investigation into the politically sensitive case, it said.

The officer expressed his apprehension that the ED first shared the information with the media before doing it with the Lokayukta.

“I might have taken that information from media itself. When you share information with another investigative agency about a case that is under investigation it is an absolute no-no that you share the same information with the media also. This is absolutely unprofessional and unethical,” he said.

According to him, the ED investigates case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and does not investigate the case under the CrPC and apply the evidentiary standards as charted out in the Indian Evidences Act.

He, however, said that it will use the information if it is found useful.

“What they claim cannot become our claim also because we apply different standards of the quality of evidences. We are already investigating the matter. Any information for us is for value only. We will use any information anybody gives,” the officer said.