BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi decided to surrender the 14 sites allotted to her by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) after senior counsel and former Union minister Kapil Sibal’s advice, according to sources.
Sibal’s advice came after another senior counsel and RS member Abhishek Manu Singhvi challenged Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s sanction to prosecute Siddaramaiah in MUDA case before the Karnataka High Court, but failed to get it quashed. Sibal suggested to do so in the wake of the Enforcement Directorate registering an ECIR against Siddaramaiah.
Sibal is likely to take up the case in the Supreme Court, the sources said.The CM’s wife is also planning to get the gift deed, through which she got 3.16 acres of land from her brother Mallikarjuna Swamy in 2010, revoked.As soon as Siddaramaiah got a clue that the ED will register the ECIR, he consulted his legal advisers, including Sibal, the sources said.
Although it is late, the move is likely to help Siddaramaiah to an extent in the ED probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). On July 4, Siddaramaiah responded to the issue for the first time in a press conference held along with Urban Development Minister Byrati Suresh.
Byrathi Suresh, retired HC judge, auditor part of meeting with Siddu
CM Siddaramaiah claimed that MUDA had allotted 14 sites to his wife as it had encroached upon the land gifted to her by her elder brother and developed a residential layout there. He offered to surrender the sites if MUDA paid Rs 62 crore as compensation.
Meanwhile, former MUDA employee and RTI activist PS Nataraj lodged a complaint with the governor stating that MUDA had executed works worth Rs 387 crore in Varuna and Srirangapatna Assembly constituencies in violation of Sections 15 and 25 of the Karnataka Urban Development Authorities (KUDA) Act, 1987, allegedly on the oral instructions of the CM.
The sources said Siddaramaiah held a meeting on Monday night with his legal adviser AS Ponnanna, former MP VS Ugrappa, Byrathi Suresh, a retired HC judge and an auditor at an undisclosed place. It is learnt that they discussed whether surrendering the sites will help CM counter the PMLA case and to what extent the move will help him in getting away from the Lokayukta probe by moving a division bench of the Karnataka High Court or the Supreme Court.
The sources said that Siddaramaiah’s sympathisers had advised him to ask his wife to surrender her 14 sites and get himself detached from the case as soon as possible.
