The Karnataka High Court allowed the ED to continue investigating the MUDA scam. CM Siddaramaiah’s wife and Minister Byrathi Suresh may now be summoned again.
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BENGALURU: In a big blow to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Karnataka High Court has given permission to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to continue its investigation in the MUDA (Mysore Urban Development Authority) scam case.
With this decision, the ED can now start its inquiry again and can also call or summon many people who are accused in the case.
This includes Siddaramaiah’s wife, Parvathi Siddaramaiah, and the Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh.
Earlier, a single-judge bench of the High Court had stopped the ED from taking action. But now, a division bench of the High Court, which included Chief Justice N V Anjaria and Justice K V Aravind, has said clearly that the previous decision will not stop the ED from doing its investigation.
The division bench was hearing the petition of the ED, which had challenged the earlier order given by Justice M Nagaprasanna on 27 January 2025.
In that earlier order, the judge had cancelled the search, seizure, and summons that the ED had sent to people involved in the case, including Parvathi Siddaramaiah and Byrathi Suresh.
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In his order, Justice Nagaprasanna had said that the ED did not have proper legal reasons or the required ‘reason to believe’ when it conducted searches. He also said that the search and seizure carried out from 28 to 29 October 2024 at the house of one of the petitioners was not legal. The judge’s exact words were:
“The impugned search and seizure conducted at the residence of the petitioner on 28.10.2024 to 29.10.2024 and the subsequent statement recorded under Section 17(1)(f) of PMLA, 2002 is vitiated on the grounds of absence of ‘reason to believe’, and is hereby declared invalid and illegal. The statement recorded under Section 17(1)(f) of PMLA, 2002, is hereby ordered to be retracted.”
After this judgment, the ED told the court that this ruling affected its case because the summons it sent to at least seven people were cancelled — including the ones sent to Siddaramaiah’s wife and Minister Byrathi Suresh.
But now, the division bench has changed that. On Wednesday, the court said that the earlier order will not stop the ED from continuing its work. The court clearly mentioned:
“Judgment and order shall not bar the applicant investigating agency from proceeding with the inquiry and investigation in accordance with law, in respect of other accused and other persons, who may be needed to be enquired or investigated in connection with the case, notwithstanding the impugned judgment and directions in case of the petitioner.”
This is a very important update in the case. The ED can now issue new summons to several big names, including Parvathi Siddaramaiah and Byrathi Suresh. The MUDA scam is related to alleged corruption in land allotments and misuse of public money.
This case has become a hot topic in Karnataka politics. With the High Court’s latest decision, there will now be more attention on the Congress-led Karnataka government, and pressure may increase on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his party.
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