MUDA case: Karnataka HC issues notice to Siddaramaiah and wife on plea seeking CBI probe

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday ordered notice to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his wife Parvathy, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy in a writ appeal seeking CBI probe into the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) alternative sites allotment case. The appeal is filed by Snehamayi Krishna, the complainant in the case.

Snehamayi Krishna has challenged the February 7, 2025 order passed by a single bench rejecting his petition seeking CBI probe. A division bench comprising Chief Justice NV Anjaria and Justice KV Aravind also ordered notice to both state and union government, the CBI, the Lokayukta police and one Devaraju, the original owner of the lands against which the alternative sites were allotted.

While dismissing the petition, the single bench had stated that not one case was placed on record where the investigation from an independent body like Lokpal or Lokayukta is taken away midstream and transferred to the hands of the CBI. The single bench had further stated that institutional integrity, independence of the Lokayukta will not be forgotten, as it is competent to investigate the offence against a sitting Chief Minister, as it has done in the past.

In his writ appeal, Snehamayi Krishna claimed that the single bench had completely erred in framing questions that were never urged before the court. “The single bench, despite noticing that even after lapse of 75 years of Independence, no political party in the country is willing or dare enough to allow independent authority like Lokayukta to discharge its duties in a transparent manner in the interest of the general public at large erred in dismissing the writ petition which sought an investigation to be done by a premier investigating agency like that of CBI. The said finding of the single bench is inherently contradictory to the reasons and the consequence of the writ petition. The single bench failed to take into consideration that the documents appended in the writ petition is sufficient proof that the Respondent no 9 (Siddaramaiah) at all times has misused the trust in order to fulfill personal goals with the aid and assistance of his family members and officials of MUDA,” the writ appeal said.

It is further stated that the single bench, in a different petition filed by filed by Siddaramaiah challenging the sanction accorded by the governor, had categorically made several observations regarding the prima facie involvement of the Chief Minister, who has played a pivotal role in influencing the state machineries, in order to ensure that his wife is allotted sites to the tune of Rs 56 crore.

“The fact that the entire state machinery worked in tandem to make sure that Respondent no 10 (Parvathy) surrenders the ill-gotten sites on the same day of the request made by the Respondent no 10. The fact that Respondent no 10 surrendered such sites established the fact that she was indeed allotted the sites illegally and without any basis and the hand in glove approach of the State Executive to insulate Respondent No.9’s family demonstrates that the investigating agency ultimately controlled by Respondent No.9-Chief Minister will not lead to an investigation that would inspire public confidence,” Snehamayi Krishna stated in the appeal.