Siddaramaiah’s appeal against MUDA probe: Karnataka High Court adjourns hearing on January 25 Bangalore News

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday 25 January adjourned the hearing of an appeal filed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and a former Mysore landowner against an order to cooperate in an investigation into alleged illegalities in the allotment of 14 Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) housing sites. Minister’s wife BM Parvati

A division bench of Chief Justice NV Anjaria and Justice KV Arvind issued notices to RTI activist Snemayi Krishna and two others in two sets of appeals by Siddaramaiah and J Devaraju, whose properties were bought by the CM’s family and exchanged for MUDA housing sites.

The Division Bench adjourned the appeal as it required a lengthy hearing. The High Court, however, refused to stay proceedings on a single judge petition filed by Krishna seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against the chief minister in the alleged 2021 tenure MUDA land scam case.

Siddaramaiah and former Devaraju appealed to the division bench against Justice M Nagaprasanna’s September 24 order that assisted the investigation into the CM’s wife for alleged corruption and fraud in the MUDA land grant. (https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/bangalore/karnataka-high-court-dismiss-siddaramaiah-plea-muda-scam-9585242/) Devaraju also filed an appeal against Justice Nagaprasanna’s November 5 order. A status report on the Lokayukta police’s investigation into the alleged land scam on Krishna’s plea for a CBI probe.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who appeared on behalf of Devaraju during Thursday’s argument, argued that his position was seriously compromised due to the strict observation of fraud in the case in which Devaraju was not made a party in the order of the single judge on August 24. Single Judge in this case.

Devaraju’s lawyer argued that although he legally sold his farmland to the chief minister’s son-in-law about 20 years ago, he was dragged into the case at the age of 80 and the High Court did not hear his case.

“The issue put forward is that the disputed land tagged with the order of the single judge in appeal (Siddaramaiah) dated September 24, 2024 originally belonged to the appellant (J Devaraju). He seeks to appeal on the ground that he and his family have been dragged into the suit because of the ownership of the land,” The Division Bench said.

Although the appeals filed by Siddaramaiah and Devaraju were heard, the Enforcement Directorate, in a letter to the Lokayukta Police, alleged massive irregularities in the allotment of land by Muda under the 50:50 land compensation scheme. The ED’s letter suggests that in 2004 Siddaramaiah’s elder brother Mallikarjuna Swamy purchased 3.16 acres of land from J Devaraju in Kesare village in Mysore as the land had already been acquired by MUDA for housing sites.

The letter also suggested concealment of illegality in the offer of 14 alternative accommodation to the Chief Minister’s wife, who was gifted 3.16 acres of land bought by her brother from Devaraju in return for Muda’s illegal occupation of her land.

Earlier on Wednesday, Siddaramaiah criticized the ED’s letter to the Lokayukta police investigating the alleged MUDA scam as “biased” and “politically motivated”.

“We have appealed against the judgment of the single bench, which will be heard tomorrow. If they (ED) sent the letter a day ago, what does that mean? he asked.

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