MUDA case: Snehamayi Krishna moves Karnataka HC challenging clean chit to CM Siddaramaiah, wife Parvathi

Social activist Snehamayi Krishna has moved the High Court of Karnataka challenging the order passed by a special court in accepting the ‘B’ report, filed by the Lokayukta police giving a clean chit to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his wife Parvathi B.M and two others on the allegation of illegalities and corruption in allotment of 14 alternative sites worth ₹56 crore to Ms. Parvathi by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

A special court of sessions for criminal cases against former and present MLAs and MPs on January 28 had accepted the ‘B’ report, in which the Lokyukta police had said that the allegations of corruption and criminal conspiracy against Mr. Siddaramaiah, Ms. Parvathi, her brother Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju J., from whom Mr. Swamy had purchased around three acres of land on being denotified by MUDA.

The petition is yet to come up for hearing before the High Court.

It has been contended in Mr. Krishna’s petition that the special court “committed a jurisdictional error in selectively accepting the ‘B’ report only against these four persons, while simultaneously directing further investigation into the actions of MUDA officials arising out of the very same transaction”.

Claiming that the special court’s order contains a fundamental inconsistency as the special court on the one hand accepts the findings in the investigation report that scheme of allotment of compensatory sites under 50:50 ratio scheme resulted in substantial loss to MUDA and the State exchequer, even in allotment of 14 sites to Ms. Parvathi, and on the other hand concludes that no offence is made out against the primary beneficiaries, Ms. Parvathi and others.

Once it was evident from the investigation report that loss had been caused to the public authority due to the allotment process, the role of the beneficiaries of such allotment could not have been separated from the actions of the officials when the special court itself had permitted the Lokayukta police to conduct further investigation against the officials and others.

The special court did not consider the materials submitted by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), it has been contended in the petition.

While seeking rejection of the ‘B’ report, Mr. Krishna has sought a direction from the High Court to order an investigation from an independent agency by considering the investigation reports of ED, which is yet to file a conclusive report on its investigation.