ED locks Rs 100 crore properties in Muda scam, total now Rs 400 crore

MYSURU: Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the alleged Mysore urban development authority site scam, has attached 92 properties in Muda-developed layouts collectively valued at Rs 100 crore. Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and family were under the scanner in the alleged scam as the CM's wife, Parvathi, had been allotted 14 sites in fashionable layouts in Mysuru in a land-swap deal for three acres and 16 guntas under the 50:50 scheme.

After a controversy erupted, she returned the sites to Muda. A Lokayukta probe had cleared the CM in the alleged case.Earlier, about 160 sites, worth Rs 300 crore, had been attached, taking total value of seized land to Rs 400 crore. Karnataka govt recently renamed the urban body as Mysuru Development Authority.ED has invoked Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 to attach the properties, which effectively pre-empts any transaction on these properties in prime Mysuru city locations.

The attached properties are registered in the names of institutions such as housing cooperative societies, or individuals.An ED press note claimed its probe revealed large-scale scam in the allotment of Muda sites by flouting govt orders and by fraudulent means. Muda officers allegedly illegally allotted sites to ineligible individuals & institutions, it said.