Karnataka: CM Siddaramaiah’s wife writes to MUDA, offers to surrender 14 allotted plots amid ED probe

Amid ongoing row over illegalities in the allotment of compensatory plots to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's wife BM Parvathi, she has written to Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to surrender 14 plots allotted to her.

In her letter to MUDA, Parvathi wrote: “Further, I wish to surrender and return the compensation plots by cancelling the deeds of 14 plots executed in my favour by the Mysore Urban Development Authority. I am also handing over the possession of the plots back to the Mysore Urban Development Authority. Kindly take necessary steps in this regard as soon as possible.”

In mounting trouble for Siddaramaiah, the Enforcement Directorate on Monday booked him, his wife and others in a money laundering case linked to the MUDA land allotment case, said a report by news agency PTI.

The probe agency has pressed sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to book Siddaramaiah in its enforcement case information report (ECIR), the equivalent of a police FIR, the report said.

Siddaramaiah, his wife Parvathi, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju -- from whom Swamy had purchased land and gifted it to Parvathi -- and others have been named in the FIR registered by the Mysuru-based Lokayukta police establishment on September 27.

The FIR was lodged after a special court in Bengaluru last week ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah.

In the MUDA site-allotment case, it is alleged that compensatory sites were given to Siddaramaiah's wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land that was "acquired" by MUDA.

Last week, Siddaramaiah, 76, had said that he was being targeted in the MUDA case as the opposition was "scared" of him.

The Karnataka CM had also reiterated that he would not resign following the court ordering a probe against him in the case as he has done no wrong and asserted that he would fight the case legally.