After Siddaramaiah’s wife decides to surrender MUDA sites, BJP asks if theft can be forgiven after return of stolen goods

Reacting to this, Leader of Opposition R Ashoka said the decision was a victory to the party’s struggle against alleged irregularities at MUDA.

“As the noose of law tightened in the Muda scam, CM Siddaramaiah has decided to return the 14 sites he had acquired in his wife’s name.. and the fact that those who said they have done nothing wrong have now admitted their mistake and surrendered to the truth is another victory in the path of our struggle,” Ashoka said Tuesday. “Is the theft forgiven as soon as the goods are returned?” he asked in Kannada in a post on X.

By returning the sites, Ashoka said, Siddaramaiah is admitting that there has been some mistake. “The decision to surrender the sites is a political drama,” he said.

BJP state president B Y Vijayendra asked whether Siddaramaiah’s wife had voluntarily decided to surrender the sites or whether she was forced to do so. “CM Siddaramaiah was saying that he had not committed any mistake and the allegations were politically motivated. He had asked why he should surrender the sites,” he said during a press conference.

On his part, Siddaramaiah said people of the state know that Opposition parties created a false complaint and dragged his family into the row. “My stand was to fight against it without bowing down to the injustice. My wife, who is hurt by the political conspiracy against me, has surprised me by deciding to surrender the sites. Yet, I respect her decision to surrender the sites,” he said.

The alleged MUDA scam pertains to the exchange of 3.16 acres of land outside Mysuru, gifted to Siddaramaiah’s wife by her brother in 2010, for 14 housing sites in a prime locality in Mysuru under a 50:50 exchange scheme created during the BJP’s rule.