Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his family members and some top officials of Mysore Urban Development Authority (Muda) in the probe into the Rs 56-crore land scam.
The investigation found large-scale irregularities of site allotments of the civic body, including illegal de-notification of government-acquired land and fraudulent land conversion, India Today reported.
According to ED, the land scam involved tampering with official records, misuse of political influence, and forgery.
The ED pointed out that the process was undertaken without proper review or due diligence. Siddaramaiah was Karnataka’s deputy CM at that time, and a member of the Muda board, but was not present at the meeting where de-notification was discussed.
A controversial aspect of the case involves the illegal allotment of sites to Siddaramaiah’s wife BM Parvathi. ED’s probe revealed that 14 sites in prime location were allocated to Parvathi, violating statutory guidelines. These sites were returned to Muda after the ED probe started.
The role of Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra, who was an MLA and a Muda board member at the time of the site allotments, was also highlighted by ED. Also, Siddaramaiah’s close aide SG Dinesh Kumar has been accused of forgery and manipulating site allotments in Parvathi’s favour.