MUDA land case: Karnataka High Court extends stay on ED summons issued to Siddaramaiah’s wife, minister (original) (raw)

The properties of the chief minister’s family have, however, not been attached. (Photo: X/ @LtGovDelhi)

The Karnataka High Court on Monday extended till February 20 a stay imposed on two separate summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife B M Parvathi and the state Urban Development Minister B S Suresha in connection with the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land allotment case.

A single-judge bench of the high court adjourned the hearings in the pleas by Parvathi and Suresha against ED notices issued to them last month to appear for investigations linked to a case of money laundering registered by the agency over 14 housing sites allotted by MUDA to Siddaramaiah’s wife in 2021.

Earlier, the court had imposed a stay on the ED notices on January 27 when the two matters first came up before it. The high court, while adjourning the two separate cases, also granted a week’s time to the ED to file objections to the petitions.

During Monday’s arguments, the senior counsel appearing on behalf of Parvathi argued that there were no proceeds of crime as mandated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the MUDA land allotments since the controversial housing sites had been returned to the authority by Siddaramaiah’s wife.

The senior counsel raised questions on whether the ED can start a parallel investigation to that of the Karnataka Lokayukta police for the predicate offence of corruption within two days of an FIR being registered for the predicate offence.

The high court was also told that the ED’s case against Parvathi cannot stand since a separate bench of the high court on January 27 quashed the ED’s proceeding against former MUDA chairman D B Natesh who had granted the 14 housing sites to Parvathi in 2021.

The CM’s wife, in her plea, sought the quashing of the investigation “in BGZO/25/2024 registered by ED arising out of predicate offence in Cr.No.11/2024, registered by the Lokayukta police” and to “quash the summons issued under section 50 of PMLA dated 03.01.2025 and summons dated 24.01.2025” and to stay all the further investigations.

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Parvathi has been named accused number two in the predicate corruption case registered by the Karnataka Lokayukta police in September 2024 over the allotment of 14 housing sites to her by MUDA in exchange for 3.16 acres of land gifted to her by her brother. She returned the 14 sites allotted to her to MUDA last year.

The ED has provisionally attached 142 properties worth Rs 300 crore in connection with its investigation into large-scale irregularities in the allotment of housing sites by MUDA which emerged last year. The properties of the chief minister’s family have, however, not been attached. The alleged irregularities emerged following allegations made by RTI activist Senhamayi Krishna.

Earlier the high court stayed the ED proceedings on January 27 citing a petition wherein a CBI probe had been sought by the RTI activist into the MUDA allotments. The court dismissed the plea for the CBI probe on February 7.