Bengaluru (Karnataka), February 26: BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar has expressed his dissatisfaction with the Lokayukta Police’s recent investigation, which cleared Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his wife of involvement in the MUDA (Mysuru Urban Development Authority) land scam. Despite the clean chit, Chandrasekhar argued that the investigation did not rule out the possibility of irregularities in the land allotment process.
“The MUDA scam and the Lokayukta’s investigation do not say that it is not an irregular allotment. The Lokayukta only concluded that it was the fault of the officers who did something illegal,” said Chandrasekhar. He further alleged that Siddaramaiah and his family had benefited from the illegal land allocation, calling it an established fact. “The fact that Siddaramaiah and his family got land allocated to them illegally has been established,” he added, insisting that it was now widely known.
Chandrasekhar accused the Congress party of being deeply involved in land scams, referencing the officer involved in the allotment process who, according to him, had previously served as a Congress MP before joining the party. “It is a widely known fact that Congress is in the business of land grabbing,” he stated. He called for a further investigation by a central agency or another independent body to probe the matter thoroughly.
This statement comes after Karnataka Lokayukta SP Udesh submitted an interim 8,000-page B Report in connection with the MUDA scam on February 20. In response, state Minister Priyank Kharge defended the Lokayukta’s findings, saying, “The Lokayukta is an independent investigative agency… if they have given a clean chit to the CM, I welcome that. CM has already said that there was no scam and no involvement of any family members, which has been proven in the investigation.”
Kharge also remarked that the BJP had previously accepted clean chits from the Lokayukta in other cases, suggesting that the investigation’s findings should be respected, irrespective of party affiliations.