New Delhi/Bengaluru | In more trouble for Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Enforcement Directorate on Monday booked him, his wife and some others in a money laundering case linked to the MUDA land allotment case, taking cognisance of a recent state Lokayukta FIR, official sources said.
The ED has pressed sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to book Siddaramaiah in its enforcement case information report (ECIR), the equivalent of a police FIR, they said.
According to the procedure, the ED is empowered to summon the accused for questioning and even attach their assets during the investigation.
The Congress slammed the BJP-led central government over the ED action, alleging the probe agency has become Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "instrument of harassment and vendetta" against his political opponents.
Siddaramaiah, 76, had last week asserted he was being targeted in the MUDA issue as the opposition was "scared" of him.
He also reiterated that he would not resign following the court ordering a probe against him in the case as he has done no wrong and asserted that he would fight the case legally.
"It is no secret that the ED has become an instrument of harassment, vendetta, revenge, and vengeance on his political opponents by the non-biological PM," Congress general secretary-in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said on the agency's action against the Karnataka chief minister.
"The people of Karnataka rejected Him resoundingly in May 2023 and He has not forgotten that humiliation. The Congress believes that He and His ED will stand thoroughly exposed soon. We have nothing whatsoever to fear. The CM of Karnataka will be vindicated," Ramesh said.
Siddaramaiah, his wife B M Parvathi, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju -- from whom Swamy had purchased land and gifted it to Parvathi -- and others have been named in the FIR registered by the Mysuru-located Lokayukta police establishment on September 27.
The FIR was lodged after a special court in Bengaluru last week ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah.
The order of the special court judge came following the Karnataka high court upholding the sanction granted by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot for a probe against the senior Congress leader on allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
In the MUDA site-allotment case, it is alleged that compensatory sites were given to Siddaramaiah's wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land that was "acquired" by MUDA.
The Lokayukta FIR has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 120B (criminal conspiracy), 166 (public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 426 (mischief), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 340 (wrongful confinement) and 351 (assault).
Meanwhile, Snehamayi Krishna, one of the complainants against the chief minister in the MUDA case, also lodged a fresh complaint with the ED in Bengaluru.
"I had filed a complaint with the ED through email on Friday. Today I personally handed over my complaint to the ED officers," Krishna told PTI.
In his complaint, Krishna alleged that the allotment of 14 sites to Siddaramaiah’s wife by the MUDA is derived from "criminal activity".
Such offences relate to "scheduled offences" under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and the allotment of sites constitutes "proceeds of crime" under the PMLA, Krishna claimed.
In a separate development, police on Monday said that Krishna was booked after a woman alleged that he threatened her in a property dispute.
According to police sources, the 30-year-old woman, a resident of Nanjangud in Mysuru district, alleged Krishna had threatened her and her mother on July 18 with dire consequences, asking her to stay away from a dispute with her in-laws regarding a property over which her late husband has a share.
The FIR was registered on August 21.
Krishna has termed the charge as "fake" and demanded that the police investigate the matter thoroughly to find out where he was at the time of the alleged incident.