Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah has landed into trouble after an FIR was filed against him by the Mysuru police on Sunday, PTI has reported. The sections under which the FIR has been registered include, section 169, 420 and 468 of the IPC involving unlawfully buying property, cheating and forgery.
The report has claimed that the FIR has been filed against the Congress leader and three others in connection with a land denotification case falling under the Laxmipuram police station area in Mysuru. The FIR was lodged on 18 June following directive issued by Mysuru’s Chief Judicial Magistrate.
The three other accused against whom criminal proceedings have been initiated are, C Basave Gowda, D Dhruvakumar – former chairmen of Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and current chairman of MUDA – P S Kantharaju.
As per a report by The Hindu, a RTI activist N. Gangaraju has alleged that Siddaramaiah while being the state’s deputy chief minister in 1997 had purchased 10 guntas (1011 square metre) of land in the Vijayanagar 2nd layout which was developed by MUDA.
This as alleged by Gangaraju was done via indirect denotification and Siddaramaiah using his influence to secure various clearances. As per the report, a house was later built on that land and it was sold in 2003. The PTI report too claims that the accused had usurped government property and Siddaramaiah had purchased the said land illegally.
The Congress party in their leader’s defence has termed this allegation as baseless.
Incidentally following the former Chief Minister’s political career, one finds that he has been embroiled in quite a few other controversies.
We had reported last year that permission had been sought to prosecute Siddaramaiah for nepotism and misuse of power. Besides this, a complaint has been filed against him and 27 others for allegations of large scale corruption in exchange of transfer of police officers.
In April 2016 he had faced allegations of nepotism after a contract to set up a CT and MRI lab at the government-run Bengaluru Medical College was given to a company headed by his son.
