The Karnataka High Court has extended the deadline for Lokayukta police to submit its final report on the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam allegedly involving Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his family members, to January 28, 2025.
The single bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna said that it would not allow the district (trial) court to frustrate proceedings before the high court by accepting the probe report on the stipulated date (December 24, 2024).
The high court was hearing a plea for a CBI probe in the MUDA case by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna, who filed the complaint before the Lokayukta against the allotment of 14 residential sites to Siddaramaiah's wife by the MUDA. The HC has posted the next hearing to January 15, 2024.
Earlier, senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal appearing for Siddaramaiah and the State respectively, submitted that they would be filing objections to the plea.
It may be recalled that the Lokayukta police registered an FIR after the High Court dismissed CM's petition challenging the Governor’s sanction order on September 24, paving the way for the trial court proceedings. Accordingly, the trial court had ordered the Lokayukta to file an FIR and investigate the MUDA case.
Siddaramaiah not only petitioned the divisional bench against the single bench order (upholding the governor's sanction order), but also appealed against Snehamayi Krishna's plea for a CBI probe before the single bench of the high court.
Meanwhile, the CM's wife has voluntarily returned the 14 sites to the MUDA.
The Enforcement Directorate probing the money laundering charges in the MUDA case, in a letter to the Lokayukta police, has alleged large-scale irregularities in the land allotments made by MUDA under a 50:50 land compensation scheme.