Bengaluru, April 8 (IANS) The Special Court for MP/MLA is likely to deliver its verdict on Tuesday regarding the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) objection petition to the closure report submitted by the Karnataka Lokayukta in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam case.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been named as the first accused, followed by his wife, B.M. Parvathi, as the second, his brother-in-law Mallikarjunaswamy as the third, and landowner J. Devaraju as the fourth accused in the land scam case. The Karnataka Lokayukta had filed a closure report against these four individuals, citing lack of evidence.
The ED filed an objection to this closure report on April 2, and petitioner Snehamayi Krishna also submitted a plea to the court questioning the Lokayukta’s investigation. The court will on Tuesday hear arguments of the ED and the counsel representing the Chief Minister.
The court has already heard arguments and counterarguments in connection with Snehamayi Krishna’s objection petition over the same matter. It is expected to pronounce its order on the closure report in the MUDA scam case after the conclusion of the day’s proceedings.
The ED in its petition had urged the court not to accept the closure report filed by the investigating agency Karnataka Lokayukta, Mysuru, in the interest of justice and issue necessary directions as deemed fit for investigation in the case.
The ED had filed its objections through the Assistant Director, Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED, in its objections stated, “The investigation undertaken revealed illegalities in the land acquisition, allotment, generation of proceeds of crime and routing/layering of the same undue influence in allotment.”
“The evidence/information collected during the investigation under the PMLA, 2002, was shared with the Lokayukta police, Mysuru, through a letter. Presently, the Lokayukta had filed a report in respect. The perusal of the report reveals that the evidence on illegalities in the process of denotification, the 3 acre 16 gunta land at Survey number 464 of Kesare village shared by this directorate to the Lokayukta police have not been considered in the report,” the ED stated.
The MUDA case is related to the alleged illegal allotment of 14 sites to CM’s wife under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of land gifted to her by her brother, the third accused. It is alleged that CM’s wife had no legal title to this 3.16 acres of land.
The Special Court directed filing the PCR on September 25, 2024. The Lokayukta police in Mysuru had filed an FIR naming CM Siddaramaiah and his family members and others. The ED had registered a case on October 1, 2024 and investigation under the PMLA was taken up.
The Lokayukta had filed a closure report against CM Siddaramaiah, his wife Parvati, brother-in-law Mallikarjunaswamy and land owner Devaraju.
The Karnataka High Court on March 7 quashed the summons issued by the ED to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife, B.M. Parvathi and state Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh in connection with the MUDA case.
The petitioner Snehamayi Krishna, has filed a complaint with the Commissioner of the Central Vigilance Committee (CVC) on March 12 against senior IPS officers serving in the Karnataka Lokayukta questioning the clean chit to the CM and his family members.
The petitioner had also filed a writ petition before the division bench of the Karnataka High Court, questioning the single bench order quashing his appeal for the CBI investigation into the MUDA case.
–IANS
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