MUDA scam: CM Siddaramaiah's brother-in-law, land owner appear before Lokayukta

Mysuru (Karnataka), Oct 10 (IANS) Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and land owner J. Devaraju appeared before the Lokayukta on Thursday in connection with the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam.

Mallikarjuna Swamy is named the third accused in the case and Devaraju is the fourth accused. The Lokayukta office here recently summoned them to appear on October 10 before the investigating officer.

The Lokayukta will question them about the allegations of the creation of fraudulent documents and violation of the law regarding the purchase of the land.

Swamy has purchased the contentious 3.16 acres of land from Devaraju at the Kesare village on the outskirts of Mysuru and gifted it to his sister Parvathy Siddaramaiah, the second accused in the case. Later, the land was acquired by the MUDA and sites were distributed without the knowledge of the owner of the land.

It is alleged that Devaraju is not the genuine owner of the land, and regarding the ownership of the land fake documents were created and forged to hand it over to CM Siddaramaiah's family.

It is also alleged that the conversion of the land, acquisition of the land and later allotment of 14 sites measuring 40x60 sites at a prime Vijayanagar locality in Mysuru is being done in favour of CM Siddaramaiah’s family.

The matter is also being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). One of the petitioners Snehamayi Krishna has approached the court seeking an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the MUDA scam.

Petitioner Snehamayi Krishna had stated that he does not have trust in the Lokayukta institution which comes under the state government and officers of Lokayukta won’t be able to investigate the prime accused in the case of CM Siddaramaiah.

The BJP has been demanding the resignation of CM Siddaramaiah over the MUDA scam. However, CM Siddaramaiah has repeatedly maintained that he will not resign from his post and demanded the resignation of the opposition leaders, who have FIRs against him.

The second accused in the scam case, Parvathy Siddaramaiah has surrendered all 14 sites to MUDA.