Karnataka HC stays Lokayukta inquiry in Siddaramaiah’s MUDA case citing CBI probe plea

The HC stayed the probe despite objections raised by the counsel for Siddaramaiah against the interjection in the Lokayukta police investigation.

“Since the matter is being heard as to whether the issue should be referred for investigation/reinvestigation/further investigation to the hands of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the order passed by the concerned court for investigation by the Lokayukta police has a direction in it for filing of the investigation report on or before December 24, 2024. Therefore further investigation by the Lokayukta till the matter is heard shall remain stayed,” the single-judge bench said.

The HC has posted the plea for a CBI probe for hearing on January 15. The CBI probe has been sought by an RTI activist, Snehamayi Krishna, who also filed the complaint before the Lokayukta police against Siddaramaiah’s family over the allotment of 14 housing sites by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in 2021 to Siddaramaiah’s wife in a land exchange.

Although the single-judge bench and a division bench, before whom appeals have been filed by Siddaramaiah and others against the MUDA probe, had earlier refused to stay the Lokayukta police investigations, the single bench said on Thursday that “there is a quagmire with pending proceedings”.

The bench said that it would not allow the district court to frustrate proceedings before the high court by accepting the probe report of the Lokayukta police and deemed it appropriate to extend to January 28, 2025, the timeline for the submission of the report.

Incidentally, on December 5, a division bench adjourned to January 25, 2025, the hearing of appeals filed by Siddaramaiah and a former Mysuru landowner against the single bench’s September 24 order facilitating an investigation in the alleged illegalities in the allotment of 14 MUDA housing sites to the CM’s wife.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice N V Anjaria and Justice K V Aravind issued notices to Snehamayi Krishna and two others who filed the complaints against Siddaramaiah and state authorities in the appeals by Siddaramaiah and J Devaraju, a landowner whose property was bought by the CM’s family and exchanged for MUDA housing sites.

The division bench adjourned the appeals by noting that they would require lengthy hearing. It, however, refused to stay proceedings on the petition before the single bench filed by Snehamayi Krishna for a CBI probe into the MUDA case from the 2021 period.

The appeal filed by Siddaramaiah and Devaraju were heard even as the Enforcement Directorate in a letter to the Lokayukta police alleged large-scale irregularities in the land allotments made by MUDA under a 50:50 land compensation scheme.

Siddaramaiah’s appeal against HC order

Siddaramaiah approached the high court in October to appeal against an order passed by Justice Nagaprasanna on September 24 upholding the governor’s sanction for investigation in the MUDA case.

Siddaramaiah’s appeal has sought the setting aside of the September 24 decision and an interim stay on the operation of the order allowing the filing of an FIR for investigations against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

In his September 24 order, Justice Nagaprasanna raised questions with regard to the value of the original land vis-a-vis the value of the compensation land. The court said that “the determined compensation amount in favour of the owner of the land is at 3,56,000/- in the year 1997 and in 2021 this becomes Rs 56 crores as compensation to the owner; the owner is wife of the petitioner (Siddaramaiah)…..The aforesaid facts are all borne out of records. All these things have happened between 1996 to 2022. This is the period in which the petitioner was at the helm of affairs twice; a lawmaker twice; the Chief Minister once…It is rather difficult to accept that the beneficiary of the entire transaction…is not the family of the petitioner”.

The case is centred on 14 sites worth Rs 56 crore that were allotted to Siddaramaiah’s wife as compensation by MUDA after it acquired around 3.16 acres of land her brother had gifted her.

The Lokayukta police, which registered an FIR after the September 24 order of the HC and a subsequent order of a special court for elected representatives on September 25, have started investigations.

Meanwhile, the chief minister’s wife has returned the 14 compensation sites allotted to her by MUDA under the controversial 50:50 scheme.

The Enforcement Directorate has also taken up a money-laundering probe in the MUDA land dealings and carried out an inspection of documents pertaining to the 50:50 scheme.