PM [1]
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The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has attached more than 140 units of immovable assets worth about Rs 300 crore in a MUDA-linked money laundering case involving Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and others.
The 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.
The role of ex-MUDA commissioner D B Natesh has emerged as "instrumental" in the illegal allotment of compensation sites to Parvathi, the agency said.
It said searches conducted in the case found that a large number of sites, other than the 14 allotted to Parvathi, have been "illegally" allotted by the MUDA as compensation to real estate businessmen, who in turn have sold these sites at "huge" profit and generated huge amount of "unaccounted" cash.
The profit so generated has been "laundered" and shown as derived out of legitimate sources, it claimed.
Sites have been allotted in the name of "benami and dummy" persons of influential names and real estate businessmen, the agency alleged.
Incriminating "evidence" regarding payment of illegal gratification to then MUDA chairman and MUDA Commissioner in the form of immovable property, MUDA sites, cash, etc., were recovered during the raids, it alleged.
It has also been found that money was routed through a co-operative society for purchase of property, luxury vehicles etc in the name of relatives of G T Dinesh Kumar, who was the previous commissioner of MUDA, the agency alleged.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by News Agency staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)