Bengaluru court orders Lokayukta probe into allegations against Siddaramaiah in MUDA scam case

A special court in Bengaluru on Wednesday directed the Karnataka Lokayukta to conduct an investigation into the allegations against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah concerning alleged irregularities in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land scam case..Judge Santosh Gajanan Bhat directed the Lokayukta office at Mysuru to initiate an investigation Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on the complaint filed by Snehamayi Krishna, one of the three complainants in the case.The judge asked the Lokayukta to file a report on its probe before the Court within three months.The special court also directed the competent authority to register a first information report (FIR) in the case..The special court’s order comes a day after the Karnataka High Court dismissed a petition filed by Siddaramaiah challenging the sanction granted by Governor Thawar Chand Gahlot under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act to prosecute him in the MUDA scam.While upholding the Governor’s sanction, Justice M Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka High Court also dissolved the interim relief earlier granted to the Chief Minister. The Court had earlier directed the special court to defer all proceedings related to the case until his petition was heard finally by the High Court..As per the complaint, Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi was ‘gifted’ a land plot measuring a little over three acres by her brother Mallikarjuna Swamy. Such land was initially acquired, then de-notified, and bought by Swamy. It was developed by MUDA even as private individuals owned it.Swamy claims to have bought the land in 2004 and gifted it to his sister. But since the land was illegally developed by MUDA, Parvathi sought compensation. She allegedly received highly inflated compensation, including 14 developed alternate plots of land that were much higher in value than the original three acres, under the 50:50 scheme.When MUDA was unable to acquire land at a break-even price, it used to hand over a portion of the developed land to the person from whom it was acquired. Initially, it was 60 per cent of the developed land for MUDA and 40 per cent to the owner of the land. Subsequently, it became 50:50.Siddaramaiah has maintained that these decisions to compensate his wife were taken by MUDA independently without his interference or influence.