Ganesh Kendale
MYSURU: Karnataka Lokayukta registered an FIR Friday against CM Siddaramaiah, his wife B M Parvathi and brother-in-law B M Mallikarjuna Swamy for alleged corruption, land grab, cheating and forgery linked to the Mysore Urban Development Authority (Muda) land allotment case.
The FIR was filed on the instructions of a special court in Mysuru that asked the Lokayukta Wednesday to start an investigation against the CM and his family members, based on activist Snehamayi Krishna’s complaint against them.Hours before the FIR naming Siddaramaiah was filed, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge broke his silence on the clamour for the CM’s resignation and declared there was no chargesheet or conviction in the case for BJP to even suggest he should step down.
“Let the law take its course… We are standing by him and supporting him because he represents the party, not an individual. Right now, there’s nothing. If any such situation arises, the party will examine it.”
Activist Krishna filed a petition in the high court Friday, asking for the probe to be transferred to CBI since the money involved in the alleged scam exceeds Rs 50 crore. He argued that there was a possibility of the CM influencing the Lokayukta probe as police take orders from the state govt. HC could take up the petition on Sept 30, sources said.
The Congress government Thursday had withdrawn “general consent” to CBI to start any new probe against public servants in the state.
The special court’s order to file an FIR came a day after Karnataka HC rejected Siddaramaiah’s legal challenge of governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot’s order sanctioning a probe into charges that he used “undue influence” to get 14 plots allotted to his wife in the heart of Mysuru as part of an allegedly illegal land-swap.
The FIR invokes sections of the IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, and the Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Act, 2011.
Lokayukta’s brief is to investigate the process of allotting 14 plots valued at Rs 56 crore to Siddaramaiah’s wife.
