MUDA scam: Complainant approaches Lokayukta police over ‘attempts to lure him’

PTI, Dec 18, 2024, 4:45 PM IST

Mysuru: An RTI activist on whose complaint a case was registered in the MUDA site allotment scam said that a person claiming to be personal assistant of Parvathi B M, wife of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, “attempted to lure and pressurise” him and his son.

Snehamayi Krishna said on Wednesday that he was asked not to push for a CBI probe in the case.

Siddaramaiah is facing allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife Parvathi by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in return for the land ‘acquired’ from her.

“On December 13, when I was near MUDA, a person known to me named Srinidhi met me and introduced a person named Harsha who claimed to be a personal assistant of Parvathi and said that she was mentally disturbed, so I should not press for the MUDA case to be handed over to CBI and let the Lokayukta probe continue,” Krishna said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, “he assured me that if I cooperated, he would get me the money I ask for.” Stating that when he did not agree to this, Harsha “tried to convince him” by telling that Parvathi was innocent and she was not aware of anything and it was Mallikarjuna Swamy, Devaraju and C T Kumar who cheated her, Krishna said, “I sent him back saying, let Parvathi file a complaint to the police that she was cheated and the truth will come out from the investigation.”

He also claimed that on December 14 when he was out of station, Harsha and Srinidhi approached his son near his house, and tried to lure and pressurise him, he said.

“They even showed my son, a video of bag of money which they claimed were paid to someone named Gangaraju, and asked him to convince me. My son did not accept and sent them back.”

Noting that he has filed a complaint to Lokayukta police in this regard, Krishna said, “I have asked for a detailed investigation into– who is Harsha? Is he really a personal assistant to Parvathi? Was the money shown in the video paid to someone named Gangaraju and for what reasons?” Snehamayi Krishna had recently approached the Karnataka High Court seeking directives to transfer the case from the Lokayukta police to CBI.

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 in the MUDA case, following the Special Court order.

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.