Bengaluru court accepts Lokayukta clean chit for CM Siddaramaiah in MUDA case

The acceptance of the B report in the probe against the Karnataka CM and his family comes close on the heels of the Lokayukta police providing the court with a draft copy of a final report into the state’s investigations of the alleged MUDA scam on January 13.

The allegations of corruption against the CM and his family were made by an RTI activist, Snehamayi Krishna, through a private complaint that the special court ordered to be registered as an FIR after Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot granted sanction in September 2024 to prosecute the CM.

“The B Report filed by the Investigating Officer against accused No.1 Sri. Siddaramaiah, accused No.2 Smt. B.M.Parvathi, accused No.3 Sri.Mallikarjuna Swamy and accused No.4 Sri. J.Devaraj, is hereby accepted,” the special court said on Wednesday.

The special court also rejected a demand for contempt-of-court proceedings sought against the investigating officer by the RTI activist over delays in the investigation.

The court has further stated that the Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating the money laundering angle in the MUDA scam, can intervene in the case only to a “limited extent” as aggrieved persons. The RTI activist and ED had challenged the closure report, and the RTI activist had sought a CBI probe in the matter.

The special court had earlier returned the draft final report submitted in a sealed cover by the Lokayukta police and directed the police to continue further investigations against other accused persons and to file a final report on the completion of the investigation.

The filing of the final report had been pending for over a month since the special court set a two-month deadline, ending on October 9, to file the report.

Snehamayi Krishna filed the original private complaint in 2024 against Siddaramaiah in connection with the allotment of 14 housing sites by MUDA to the CM’s family in exchange for a 3.16-acre property “wrongly acquired” by MUDA.

Following the controversy over the allotment of the 14 housing sites, the CM’s wife returned the 14 housing sites to the MUDA in 2024.

The special court also said in April 2025 that the Enforcement Directorate could also continue its investigations with respect to a Prevention of Money Laundering Act case registered over the MUDA land allotments scam.

On November 14, 2025, ED filed a prosecution complaint against former MUDA commissioner G T Dinesh Kumar in connection with the alleged illegal allotment of MUDA land. Kumar was arrested in September 2025 and has been in prison since the arrest. He was arrested by the Lokayukta police as well, on December 17, 2025.

“The evidence and documents collected during the course of investigation in this case have indicated active involvement of GT Dinesh Kumar in the comprehensive money laundering scheme perpetrated at MUDA, Mysuru, during his tenure as commissioner,” the agency has stated.

ED probe in MUDA case

The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached 142 properties worth Rs 300 crore in connection with its investigation into alleged large-scale irregularities in the allotment of housing sites by MUDA, which emerged in 2024. The properties of the CM’s family were, however, not attached by the agency.

The Karnataka High Court on March 7 quashed a summons issued by the ED to the CM’s wife and Urban Development Minister B S Suresh in the MUDA matter by emphasising that an individual cannot be compelled to give a statement in a PMLA case when no incriminating material has been found against them. This order was upheld by the Supreme Court.

ED has said that its probe revealed a large-scale scam in the allotment of MUDA sites.

“The role of GT Dinesh Kumar has emerged as instrumental in illegal allotment of compensation sites to ineligible entities/individuals. The evidence with respect to obtaining bribes for making illegal allotments in the form of cash, bank transfer, movable/immovable properties have been gathered during the course of the investigation,” the agency has said.

The modus operandi for making the alleged illegal allotments involved the identification of ineligible beneficiaries and making allotments using fake or incomplete documents, in violation of government orders, and also by back-dating allotment letters, ED said.

The gratification received for making these illegal allotments was routed through a cooperative society and bank accounts of the relatives or associates of Kumar, who has played a key role in the allotment process, the agency added.

The gratification thus received was further used to purchase some of these illegally allotted MUDA sites in the name of Kumar’s relatives, the ED said.

Judicial commission report on MUDA scam

In September 2025, a judicial commission headed by a retired high court judge, Justice P N Desai, which was assigned the role of investigating the allegations of corruption and maladministration in MUDA, reported that there was no wrongdoing in the CM’s family being given 14 developed housing sites to compensate for 3.16 acres wrongly acquired by MUDA.

The Justice P N Desai commission, however, found large-scale irregularities in the functioning of MUDA in the 2020-2024 period and recommended criminal investigations and action against MUDA officials as well as cancellations of site allotments done by MUDA under the 50:50 scheme after March 2023, when the scheme was flagged as violating rules.

Among the key findings of the Justice Desai commission are that the MUDA scheme for the allotment of alternative sites as compensation for land acquired by MUDA was filled with loopholes and seemed devised for benefiting illegal claimants and that it reeked of a scam.

The sudden emergence of demands for alternative sites in the 2020-24 period as compensation for MUDA- acquired properties “may be with the intention to get some better sites of their choice with the help and connivance of MUDA Officers and officials or It appears to be a scam in allotting alternate sites giving untenable reasons”, the commission said.