New Delhi:The Enforcement Directorate on Monday booked Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and some others in a money-laundering case linked to the Mysuru Urban Development Authority scam, taking note of a recent state Lokayukta FIR.
The Central financial agency filed an enforcement case information report (ECIR) to book the chief minister and the others, official sources said.
Mr Siddaramaiah, his wife B.M. Parvathi, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju, from whom Swamy had purchased land and gifted it to Parvathi, and some others were named in the FIR registered by the Mysuru-located Lokayukta police establishment on September 27.
The FIR was lodged after a special court in Bengaluru last week ordered a Lokayukta police probe against the CM. The special court judge’s order came a day after the Karnataka high court upheld the sanction by governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to conduct an investigation against the senior Congress leader on allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
The ED has pressed sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to book Mr Siddaramaiah in its ECIR, the equivalent of a police FIR.
According to procedure, the ED is empowered to summon the accused for questioning and even attach their assets during the investigation.
Mr Siddaramaiah, 76, had last week said he was targeted in the Muda issue as the Opposition in the satte was “scared” of him and noted that it was the first such “political case” against him.
He also reiterated that he would not resign after the court ordered a probe against him in the case as he has done no wrong and asserted that he would fight the case legally.
In the Muda site-allotment case, it is alleged that compensatory sites were given to Mr Siddaramaiah’s wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value in comparison with the location of her land that was “acquired” by Muda.
The Lokayukta FIR was registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) like 120B (criminal conspiracy), 166 (public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person), 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 426 (mischief), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 340 (wrongful confinement) and 351 (assault).
