MUDA case: ED's statement issued at behest of BJP, says CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru, Jan 20 (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said that the ED's statement on the MUDA site allotment case was politically motivated.
The chief minister, his wife Parvathi B M and her brother Mallakarjuna Swamy and others are accused in the case registered by the Lokayukta police on court directions.
The Enforcement Directorate on January 17 said it had attached 142 units of immovable assets worth about Rs 300 crore in a MUDA-linked money laundering case involving Siddaramaiah and others.
The ED is also probing the case based on a complaint by an activist Snehamayi Krishna.
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"I have no connection with the ED's press release. They (ED) are doing it intentionally and unnecessarily for political reasons," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.
"The ED issued the release at the behest of the BJP. It is politically motivated," he added.
The ED attachment is part of a money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in land allotment by Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
The attached properties are registered in the name of various individuals who are working as real-estate businessmen and agents, the federal agency said in a statement.
"It is alleged that Siddaramaiah (a Congress leader) used his political influence to get compensation for 14 sites in the name of his wife Smt. BM Parvathi in lieu of 3 acres 16 guntas of land acquired by MUDA.
"The land was originally acquired by MUDA for Rs 3,24,700. The compensation in the form of 14 sites at posh locality is worth Rs 56 crore," the agency said.
The chief minister, who has been questioned by the Karnataka Lokayukta in this case, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing by him or his family, saying the opposition was "scared" of him and that these were politically motivated charges.
ಬಿಜೆಪಿ ಪಕ್ಷವೇ ಇ.ಡಿ ಮೂಲಕ ಪತ್ರಿಕಾ ಪ್ರಕಟಣೆ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಮಾಡಿಸಿದೆ. ಇದು ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣವಾಗಿ ರಾಜಕೀಯ ಪ್ರೇರಿತ ನಡೆ. pic.twitter.com/anXklVVRkg
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) January 20, 2025
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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.
