Bengaluru (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested ex-MUDA commissioner Dinesh Kumar under the provisions of the anti-money laundering law in a case related to allotment of alleged illegal sites, officials said on Wednesday.

He is expected to be produced before a designated special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Bengaluru where the agency will seek for his custody, the officials said.

The arrest came after the federal probe agency on Tuesday searched two residential premises in Bengaluru linked to Kumar in connection with the MUDA illegal sites allocation "scam".

Kumar, as per the ED, during his tenure as MUDA commissioner indulged in "large-scale illegal allotment" of MUDA sites in lieu of "gratification and peculiarly benefits."

Probe has found his "active" involvement in money laundering activities, ED sources said.

The ED is conducting a money laundering investigation into the MUDA allotment of land parcels case on the basis of a Karnataka Lokayukta Police FIR that had named Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his wife BM Parvathi, the CM's brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy, Devaraju -- from whom Swamy purchased the land under probe and gifted it to Parvathi -- and some others.

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New Delhi (PTI): In a friendly banter, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he didn’t have "the wife issue", as the Congress MP emphasised that everyone has learnt from women in their lives.

Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on the three bills introduced for amendments to the women's quota law and setting up a delimitation commission, Gandhi said women are a driving force in the national imagination and national perspective.

"All of us in this room have been influenced, taught, and have learnt a lot from women in our lives – from mothers, sisters, wives," Gandhi said.

"Of course, the prime minister and myself don't have the wife issue, so we don't get that input, but we have our mothers and sisters," he said while referring to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju's light-hearted remark that he got a scolding at home as he did not pen a poem for his wife like Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal did.

Gandhi also lauded his sister and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi's speech in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

"Yesterday, I was watching my sister achieve in five minutes what I have not been able to do in 20 years of my political career – make Amit Shah Ji smile," Gandhi said to peals of laughter.