The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has booked Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a money-laundering case related to the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) on Monday, September 30. The ED has filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), enabling the agency to summon the accused for questioning and potentially attach their assets during the investigation.
This follows a recent FIR filed by the Karnataka Lokayukta. In addition to Siddaramaiah, the Lokayukta FIR also names his wife BM Parvathi, his brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy, and Devaraju, from whom Mallikarjuna had purchased land that was later gifted to Parvathi. The FIR, registered on September 27, stems from allegations that MUDA illegally allotted compensatory sites to Siddaramaiah’s wife in an upscale area of Mysuru, which was far more valuable than her original land acquired by the development authority.
The FIR was filed last week after a special court in Bengaluru ordered a Lokayukta police investigation into Siddaramaiah's involvement in the case. This decision came a day after the high court upheld Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot's sanction to investigate the senior Congress leader over allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife by the MUDA.
Siddaramaiah denied the allegations and said that he was being targeted because the opposition was "scared" of him, describing it as the first "political case" against him. He said that he would not resign in light of the investigation, maintaining he has done no wrong and that he would fight the case legally.
The Lokayukta FIR has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) like 120B (criminal conspiracy), 166 (public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person), 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 426 (mischief), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 340 (wrongful confinement) and 351 (assault).