The Karnataka governor on Saturday gave his permission to prosecute Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a complaint over the alleged scam in allocating land from the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot has directed RTI activist TJ Abraham, who flagged the 'MUDA scam,' to meet him at Raj Bhavan at 3 pm on Saturday.
The MUDA scam allegations, which have become a major political controversy in Karnataka, involve charges of irregularities in land allotments by the MUDA. It is alleged that Parvathi Siddaramaiah, the wife of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, benefitted from these irregularities.
In 2021, MUDA acquired Parvathi Siddaramaiah’s 3-acre plot in Kesare village, Mysuru, for development. In return, she was allocated other plots in the upscale Vijayanagar area of south Mysuru. As per the claims, the market value of the Vijayanagar plots is significantly higher than that of her original land in Kesare.
Abraham, the President of the Karnataka Anti-Graft and Environmental Forum, has filed a complaint alleging that Siddaramaiah failed to disclose his wife’s ownership of the said land in his 2023 Assembly election affidavit.
The complaint, which alleged that the non-inclusion of the land details in his affidavit was "with his absolute knowledge and clearly with some ulterior motives" and also sought legal action against Siddaramaiah under Section 125A and Section 8 of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1950. It also cited violations of various of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
In the first week of August, Abraham filed a Memorandum to the Commissioner of MUDA, seeking the cancellation and recall of the compensatory sites given to the Chief Minister's wife, Parvathi. He mentioned that "illegal manipulations and corrupt steps were taken at various stages" in allocating the land.
