FIR registered by Lokayukta police against Karnataka CM in MUDA case

Mysuru: As mandated by a court order, Lokayukta police here filed a First Information Report (FIR) on Friday against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other parties in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allocation case, according to official sources.

The ground was laid for the filing of an FIR against Siddaramaiah on Wednesday when a Special Court in Bengaluru ordered a Lokayukta police probe into the case.

The order of the Special Court Judge, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, came a day after the High Court upheld the sanction granted by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to conduct an investigation against Siddaramaiah on the allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife B M Parvathi by MUDA.

The Special Court issued the order directing the Lokayukta police in Mysuru to initiate an investigation on the complaint filed by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna.

The Court issued directions to take up the probe under section 156 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) (which gives a magistrate the power to order an investigation into a cognisable offence and file the investigation report by December 24.

"Acting under Sec. 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the jurisdictional police i.e., Superintendent of Police, Karnataka Lokayukta, Mysuru is hereby directed to register the case, investigate and to file a report as contemplated under Sec.173 of Cr.P.C., within a period 3 months from today." the court had said.

It had listed offences punishable under Sec.120B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy), 166 (Public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person), 403 (Dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 ( Punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 ( Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 426 ( Punishment for mischief), 465 (Punishment for forgery), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 340 (Wrongful confinement), 351 (Assault) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The court had also listed offences punishable under sections 9 and 13 of the Prevention Of Corruption Act, 1988 and under Sec.3, 53 and 54 of the Prohibition Of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 and 3, 4 of Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Act, 2011.

Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy, Devaraju (from whom Mallikarjuna Swamy purchased land and gifted it to Parvathi) and others are named in the FIR, official sources said.

With PTI inputs