Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has found himself in fresh trouble as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has booked him, along with his wife Parvathi and others, in a money laundering case linked to the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land allotment issue. This action follows a recent FIR filed against Siddaramaiah by the Karnataka Lokayukta.
Shortly after the ED’s announcement, Parvathi declared her intention to return 14 controversial land sites to MUDA, formally notifying the MUDA commissioner via a letter on Monday evening. The ED has invoked sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in its enforcement case information report (ECIR), which serves as a counterpart to a police FIR. This empowers the ED to summon individuals for questioning and potentially attach assets during the investigation.
The FIR was lodged by the state Lokayukta under the orders of a special court in Bengaluru, naming Siddaramaiah, his wife B.M. Parvathi, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy, and Devaraju—who sold land to Swamy and later gifted it to Parvathi.
The special court’s ruling came a day after the High Court upheld the sanction granted by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to investigate Siddaramaiah regarding allegations of irregularities in the allotment of land to his wife by MUDA.
Siddaramaiah has claimed that he is being targeted in this case due to fears from the opposition, insisting he will not resign as he believes he has done nothing wrong. He vowed to fight the allegations legally.
The Congress party has also criticized the BJP-led central government, asserting that the ED and other federal agencies have become tools of harassment and vendetta against political opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Allegations in the MUDA case suggest that compensatory sites were allocated to Parvathi in a high-value area of Mysuru, significantly more valuable than the land that was “acquired” by MUDA.
