In a relief to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathy BM, and his cabinet colleague Byrathi Suresh, the Karnataka High Court has quashed the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scame case.
The MUDA land scam broke last year after anti-corruption activists claimed that compensatory land allotments by MUDA between 2016 and 2024 - specifically 14 plots in a posh Mysuru neighbourhood to Ms Parvathi - exceeded the value of land taken up by the agency.
Last year, Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot allowed three private individuals to seek investigations against Karnataka Chief Minister on complaints of corruption in the allotment of 14 housing sites in Mysuru to the wife of the CM - in exchange for 3.16 acres of land allegedly acquired illegally by a local authority in the city. In separate complaints, anti-corruption activists T J Abraham, Snehamayi Krishna, and Pradeep Kumar alleged that the CM’s wife was an illegal beneficiary of a controversial land exchange scheme that was devised by the MUDA in 2020 to resolve cases in which the authority had illegally acquired land without informing owners about the acquisition.
The complaints named the Chief Minister and his wife, as well as his son S Yathindra and senior MUDA officials. In the ensuing fallout, the land body's chief, K Mari Gowda, who is known to be close to Siddaramaiah, stepped down. He said he had been "instructed" to do so.
All of this allegedly cost the state finances Rs 45 crore. Ms Parvathi had earlier offered to surrender the parcels of land in question, an act from which Siddaramaiah distanced itself. MUDA took back the land but the investigation continued.
The Chief Minister has repeatedly denied any impropriety in these or any related transactions, claiming the 14 plots of land allotted to his wife were, in fact, gifts from her brother.
"I will fight. I am not afraid of anything," he had said, insisting he would not resign as there was no conviction in any case. We are ready to face the investigation. I will fight this legally," he said after the Karnataka High Court had quashed his challenge to the Governor's sanction.
The CM and the Congress party have denied the allegations. The Congress has pointed out that the launch of MUDA’s “50:50” scheme (to grant 50 per cent of land in a developed locality in exchange for 50 per cent of the land illegally acquired by MUDA), and the decision to allot 14 plots to Siddaramaiah’s wife under the scheme took place in 2020 and 2021 - when the BJP was in power in the State. The three anti-corruption activists have questioned the original ownership of the 3.16-acre parcel of land, which was acquired by Siddaramaiah’s brother-in-law in 2004, and subsequently gifted to the CM’s wife Parvathi in 2010.
In January 2025, the court had granted interim order of stay against the summons issued by the ED. In February, Karnataka Lokayukta police gave a clean chit to Siddharamaiah and his wife in the case, citing “lack of evidence”.