MUDA case: BJP calls Lokayukta police interrogating Siddaramaiah ‘match fixing’

PTI, Nov 6, 2024, 7:04 PM IST

Bengaluru: The BJP on Wednesday ridiculed the Lokayukta police interrogating Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the MUDA case, saying that it was a “stage-managed questioning” and a “match fixing”.

As Siddaramaiah appeared for questioning before the Lokayukta Superintendent of Police T J Udesh, the BJP challenged him to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) if he was honest.

In this 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 “acquired” by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

“The Chief Minister today appeared before the Lokayukta police. We all know that the Lokayukta cannot do anything. It’s all stage-managed by him (Siddaramaiah) only to show that he is clean. This doesn’t suit him,” BJP senior leader and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa told reporters here.

He said if Siddaramaiah is really honest he should hand over the case to the CBI.

“I demand that you assign it to the CBI if the truth has to come out. The whole world knows that you are immersed in corruption,” he said.

The Leader of Opposition R Ashoka wondered whether the investigation was “match fixing”.

“The CM’s tour programme says he would enter the Lokayukta office for interrogation at 10 AM and would proceed for Channapatna at 12 Noon. How can he fix time to question him? Is it a match-fixing? How did he know at what time the investigating officer would complete his questioning? How is the investigation happening?” he asked.

He said the people of the state are ashamed that in 16 months of Congress rule, ministers were involved in neck deep corruption and looting the state.

“What to say when the chief minister appears for interrogation before his subordinate police officer. The chief minister himself has given the police officer a posting. Now how the same officer will investigate him,” he wondered.

Lok Sabha member and former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai also flayed Siddaramaiah.

“For the first time in the history of Karnataka, a sitting chief minister is appearing as an accused before the police officer who has worked under him. This has lowered the dignity of the chief ministerial post,” he noted.

The BJP cadres staged a protest in Mysuru when the chief minister went to the Lokayukta office for questioning. They hit the street with posters, banners and placards. They also raised slogans condemning Siddaramaiah and demanded his resignation. As the agitation intensified, the police took them under preventive custody and released them later.

The MUDA had allotted 14 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.

Karnataka Lokayukta police, and the Directorate of Enforcement have launched an investigation into the charges.