The Karnataka High Court on Friday rejected a plea to transfer probe into alleged scam in Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotments to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The decision has come as a huge relief to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his wife, who are already facing an ED probe in connection with the scam.
Hearing RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna’s plea, Karnataka High Court Judge M. Nagaprasanna observed the current Lokayukta probe doesn’t suffer from questionable independence. Hence, there wasn’t any need to transfer the probe to the central agency at this stage, the bench observed.
"The office of Lokayukta does not suffer from questionable independence to transfer the case to CBI. The insulation of Lokayukta from external influence is already recognised by Supreme Court and High Court. There is no malady to direct CBI to investigate instead,” Bar and Bench reported quoting the bench.
Noting there was no proof of Lokayukta probe being biased towards the chief minister, the bench said in its order, “The material on record does not indicate that Lok Ayukta investigation against Siddaramaiah is partisan, lopsided or shoddy to direct a CBI probe.”
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The case stems from alleged irregularities in compensatory site allotments to Parvathi, wife of Siddaramaiah, for land acquired from her by MUDA. Allegedly, 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 which had been acquired by the development authority.
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, PTI reported. It is alleged the chief minister’s wife had no legal title over the 3.16 acres of land “acquired” from her in Kasaba hobli of Mysuru taluk. The ED’s case stems from the Lokayukta probe. The Lokayukta has registered a case naming Siddaramaiah, his wife Parvathi, brother-in-law B.M. Mallikarjun Swamy, Devaraju, the landowner from whom Swamy purchased the land and gifted to Parvathi.