MUDA case: Siddaramaiah booked by ED for money laundering, wife says....
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah was booked by the Enforcement Directorate on Monday in the controversial MUDA ‘land scam’ case.
In fresh trouble for Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday booked him, his wife Parvathi and others in a money laundering case linked to the MUDA land allotment case. The action has been taken in view of the recent Karnataka Lokayutka FIR against the chief minister, officials told PTI.
Hours after the ED action against Siddaramaiah came, his wife Parvathi announced that she would be returning the 14 controversial land sites to MUDA given the case, reported PTI. The Karnataka CM's wife did so by writing a letter to the MUDA commissioner on Monday evening.
The ED has pressed sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to book Siddaramaiah in its enforcement case information report (ECIR), the equivalent of a police FIR. According to the procedure, the ED is empowered to summon the accused for questioning and even attach their assets during the investigation.
The FIR, lodged by the state Lokayukta on order of a special court in Bengaluru, names Siddaramaiah, his wife B M Parvathi, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju - from whom Swamy had purchased land and gifted it to Parvathi - in the case.
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The order of the special court judge came a day after the high court upheld the sanction granted by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to investigate the senior Congress leader on allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
Earlier, Siddaramaiah had asserted that he was being targeted in the MUDA case because the opposition was “scared” of him. He had also reiterated that he would not resign following the court ordering a probe against him in the case as he had done no wrong and asserted that he would fight the case legally.
The Congress also attacked the BJP-led central government, saying that ED and other central probe agencies have become Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "instrument of harassment and vendetta" against his political opponents.
As per the allegations in the MUDA land allotment case, compensatory sites were given to Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land that was "acquired" by MUDA.
(With inputs from PTI)