Lokayukta police submits report to Special Court in MUDA case involving CM Siddaramaiah
Mysuru (Karnataka) Jan 25 (PTI): The Lokayukta police have submitted their report to the Special Court in Bengaluru regarding the MUDA alternative site allotment case, which involves Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his wife.
The report was submitted on Friday, ahead of the court hearing scheduled for January 27.
According to sources, the report was initially set to be submitted a day before the hearing. However, since January 25 was a fourth Saturday and a court holiday, the Lokayukta police advanced the submission to January 24.
Officials from the Mysuru Lokayukta remained tight-lipped about the contents of the report and refused to disclose any details.
The case stems from an FIR registered against Siddaramaiah and others on September 27, 2024.
Following a complaint by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna, the special court in Bengaluru had directed the jurisdictional Lokayukta police in Mysuru on September 25 to conduct an investigation.
As per the complaint, a piece of land originally owned by Devaraju was sold to B M Mallikarjuna Swamy on August 25, 2004. The land, initially classified as agricultural, was later converted for non-agricultural use.
On October 6, 2010, Mallikarjuna Swamy transferred the land to his sister, B M Parvathi, the wife of CM Siddaramaiah. Beginning in 2014, Parvathi submitted multiple requests to Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) seeking compensation for the acquired land.
Subsequently, on December 12, 2021, then-MUDA Commissioner D B Natesh allotted 14 alternative sites on a 50:50 ratio. However, in light of the controversy, Parvathi returned all the sites to MUDA on October 3, 2024.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
