Bengaluru: A team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) from Bengaluru swung into action on Friday to conduct searches at the office of Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in Mysuru city for documents related particularly to plot allotments made to B.M. Parvathi, wife of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah by MUDA.
ED on September 30 registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) against the Chief Minister accusing him of money laundering. Prior to the ED case, the Lokayukta, Mysuru wing registered a First Information Report (FIR) on September 27 against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, B.M. Parvathi, CM’s brother-in-law B.M. Mallikarjun Swamy and others. In the Lokayukta FIR, CM is accused 1 while his wife is accused 2.
Over the alleged irregularities in plot allotments in MUDA, the State Government constituted a one-man judicial commission under retired Justice P. N. Desai.
After ED registered ECIR against Siddaramaiah, which is equivalent to Police FIR, CM’s wife B.M. Parvathi stated to have made a written request to MUDA Commissioner that she voluntarily surrendered 14 plots allotted to her by MUDA in lieu of her losing 3.16 acres to MUDA in survey number 464 at Kesare village in Mysuru.
It may be recalled here one of the petitioners against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over plot allotments was activist Snehamayi Krishna, a resident of Mysuru city. Krishna alleged several relevant files of plot allotments went missing from MUDA and accused Minister of Urban Development Byrathi Suresh of ferrying files related to plot allotments to CM’s wife.
When contacted by Deccan Chronicle over the searches by ED sleuths in MUDA, Snehamayi Krishna alleged he was sure of files ferried by Byrathi Suresh (with an intention to manipulate) but unaware whether the files have been returned to MUDA. Only an investigation will reveal the truth.
Leader of Opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA R. Ashok told reporters in Bengaluru the party would chalk out future course of action once ED searches at MUDA office comes out with documents related to irregularities in plot distribution.
An official in MUDA said to cooperate with ED sleuths in its search and submit documents asked by ED sleuths.
