Lokayukta police seeking legal clarification to register case against CM Siddaramaiah

PTI, Sep 26, 2024, 7:23 PM IST

Bengaluru: The Lokayukta police are seeking ‘legal clarification’ to register an FIR against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case, sources said on Thursday.

A special court here on Wednesday ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah in the MUDA case, setting the stage for registering an FIR against him.

The order of the special court Judge, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, came a day after a single judge bench of the High Court upheld the sanction granted by the Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to conduct an investigation against Siddaramaiah on the allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife B M Parvathi by MUDA.

“We have not yet registered a case. Some legal clarification is being sought, as the special court has passed the order under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) while it should have perhaps passed the order following procedure under Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Samhita (BNSS),” a source in the Lokayukta police told PTI.

“We have to lawfully register a case under BNSS but the court order is under CrPC, so the clarification is being sought,” the officer added.

One of the petitioners in the MUDA case, Snehamayi Krishna, based on whose petition the court directed the Lokayukta police to book a case against Siddaramaiah, expressed concern on Thursday as no case was registered.

He alleged that the Lokayukta police were not obeying the court order and the Mysuru Lokayukta Superintendent of Police T J Udesh was not “reachable.” The special court exclusively to deal with criminal cases related to former and elected MPs/MLAs issued the order directing the Lokayukta police in Mysuru to initiate an investigation.

In the MUDA site allotment case, it is alleged that compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah’s wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been “acquired” by the 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 that Parvathi had no legal title over this 3.16 acres of land at survey number 464 of Kasare village, Kasaba hobli of Mysuru taluk