MUDA case: Karnataka HC defers filing of Lokayukta police report

PTI, Dec 19, 2024, 7:19 PM IST

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday postponed the filing of the Lokayukta police probe report in the MUDA site allotment case.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is facing allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife Parvathi B M by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

The court’s decision came amidst a plea seeking to transfer the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal, representing Siddaramaiah and the Karnataka government, informed the court of their intention to file objections to the transfer plea.

Justice M Nagaprasanna, presiding over the case, had earlier issued an interim order to stay proceedings in the trial court. However, this move was met with objections from the petitioner’s legal team.

Addressing these concerns, the court said, “This court will not permit a district court to secure and act on the Lokayukta report while the matter is under its consideration. To safeguard the proceedings before this court, I find it appropriate to extend the deadline for filing the final report to January 28, 2025.” 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, following the Special (district) Court order, which had also directed for filing the investigation report by December 24.

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

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 on the outskirts of Mysuru.

However, as the site allocation triggered a controversy, Parvathi wrote to MUDA asking it to cancel 14 sites allotted to her, and the MUDA had accepted it.