ED grills Siddaramaiah's brother-in-law for 5 hours in MUDA case

Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday grilled Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's brother-in-law in connection with the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case.

B M Mallikarjuna Swamy, one of the suspects, appeared before the Central agency at its office in Shanti Nagar in Bengaluru at around 2 pm following a notice. Swamy was questioned till late evening, sources said. 

Swamy walked out of the ED office at around 6.45 pm and refused to respond to the questions by the media.

An investigation is also being held by the Karnataka Lokayukta police in Mysuru, based on whose First Information Report (FIR), the ED registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and launched a parallel probe on September 30. The Lokayukta police launched the investigation after it was directed by a Special Court for MP/MLA in Bengaluru on September 25.

As per RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna’s complaint, J Devaraju allegedly sold 3.16 acres of land on survey number 464 of Kesare village in Mysuru to Swamy on August 25, 2004. Subsequently, the land was converted from agriculture to non-agriculture land.

Krishna claimed that Swamy gifted the land to Parvathi, CM’s wife, on October 6, 2010, and the latter submitted multiple representations to MUDA in 2014 seeking compensation for the land, developed by MUDA without acquiring it.

On December 12, 2021, D B Natesh, the then MUDA commissioner allotted 14 sites on an alternative developed area, in Mysuru’s Vijayanagar's third and fourth stage on a 50:50 ratio.

Following the allegations and registration of the case, Parvathi, on October 3, returned the 14 sites to MUDA. ED earlier questioned former MUDA chairman K Marigowda and Raichur MP G Kumar Naik in connection with the case.