The Enforcement Directorate on Friday raided the office of the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (Muda) in connection with the alleged irregularities in the land allotment case in which Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has also been named.
“The raid was conducted at the Muda office. The officials also had meetings with senior Muda officials, including commissioner A.N. Raghunandan. The agency will soon question all Muda officials to ascertain their involvement in the alleged land allotment case,” said an ED official.
The raid comes a few days after K. Marigowda, believed to be a close aide of Siddaramaiah, resigned as Muda chairperson citing healthreasons. On September 30,the ED registered a money-laundering case linked to Muda against Congress leader Siddaramaiah.
Siddaramaiah, his wife B.M. Parvathi, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy, former landowner Devaraju and others were named inthe FIR registered by the Mysuru Lokayukta police establishment in connection with the alleged allotment of 14 Muda housing sites to Parvathi in 2021. Swamy had allegedly purchased land from Devaraju and gifted it toParvathi.
The ED, which has booked Siddaramaiah under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is now empowered to summon him for questioning and attach his and his family’sproperties.
Hours after the ED registered a case, Parvathi had written to Muda surrendering the 14 plots allotted to her. The BJP has claimed that Parvathi’s decision to surrender the plots “amounts to the CM’s official acceptance of wrongdoing in the Muda land allotment”.
