Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah booked in MUDA case

The Lokayukta police on Friday registered an FIR against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and others in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case following a court order.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge came to Siddaramaiah’s defence, stating that the party was standing with him and would support him. Siddaramaiah, who began his three-day visit to his home district of Mysuru, claimed that he was being targeted on the MUDA issue as the Opposition was “scared” of him. He said it was the first such “political case” against him.

He reiterated that he won’t resign following the court ordering a probe against him in the case as he had done “no wrong”. He asserted that he would fight the case legally.

While Siddaramaiah is accused number one in the case, his wife BM Parvathi, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy, Devaraju (from whom Swamy purchased land and gifted it to Parvathi) and others have also been named in the FIR registered by the Lokayukta police in Mysuru. A special court in Bengaluru on Wednesday ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah in the case.

The order of the special court judge, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, came a day after the high court upheld the sanction granted by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to conduct an investigation against Siddaramaiah on allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife by MUDA.