
BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday allowed the Lokayukta police to continue its investigation into the alleged irregularities in the allotment of sites to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife B M Parvathy by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
The court also directed the Inspector General of Police of the anti-corruption body to oversee the investigation and the Additional Director General of Police to peruse the probe report to be placed before the court on the next date of hearing.
Justice M Nagaprasanna adjourned the hearing to January 27 after hearing the arguments of senior counsel Maninder Singh, appearing for the petitioner, Snehamayi Krishna, who moved the high court seeking directions to entrust the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The court also sought the report of the investigation done till date from December 19, 2024.
Singh argued that the investigation must be fair and independent, which should inspire confidence in the public, but the government is protecting the accused. If higher officials and politicians are involved, the court has to exercise reasonable discretion to consider the request of the petitioner to hand over the probe to the independent investigating agency.
“Some of the committees of bureaucrats have taken the records of the case from the Lokayukta. The wife of the chief minister surrendered the sites and on the same day, an order was passed in lightning speed to accept it. The surrender of sites shows that the accused confessed to the crime,” he argued.
Meanwhile, the court permitted the counsels of the respondent accused to file objections and serve the copies to the petitioner.