New Delhi:The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Bengaluru, has attached 142 properties approximately worth Rs 300 crore belonging to real estate businessmen and agents in connection with the MUDA case involving Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his wife.
The ED in its official X handle on Friday revealed that the provisional attachment of said properties were made under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in connection with the case against Siddaramaiah, the incumbent CM and others.
ED had registered a case against Siddaramaiah in September 2024 under PMLA taking cognisance of the FIR registered against the latter by the Lokayukta Police in a case where he is accused of influencing MUDA's decision to allot 14 sites to his wife in an upmarket locality in Mysuru city in lieu of 3.16 acres of land on the outskirts of the city by MUDA to develop a layout.
After registering an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) equivalent to an FIR by police, ED officials raided the MUDA office and houses of several real estate agents in October last year in Mysuru and Bengaluru. RTI activist Shenamayi Krishna, the complainant in the MUDA case, has also made a complaint before ED claiming the alleged scam attracts PMLA provisions.
Currently, the case is being investigated by Lokayukta police even as Krishna has filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court seeking a CBI probe expressing apprehension that Lokayukta Police, who function under the Karnataka government cannot do justice to a case involving the Chief Minister. The Karnataka High Court has posted the next hearing on his petition to January 27.
