Setback for Siddaramaiah: Karnataka High Court rejects plea against Governor's approval for probe in site allotment case

The Karnataka High Court has rejected a petition from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that challenged Governor Thawarchand Gehlot's approval for prosecution against him in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam case.

CM Siddaramaiah is facing investigation for alleged illegalities in MUDA allotting as many as 14 sites to his wife in the prime location of Mysuru city.

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The verdict was given by Justice M Nagaprasanna at 12 pm today. The judgement said the order of sanction for prosecution “does not suffer from non-application of mind” by the Governor, according to news agency ANI.

This comes after the High Court's interim order on August 19, which provided temporary relief to the CM by instructing a special court in Bengaluru to postpone any further action regarding the prosecution sanction granted by the Governor.

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Most recently, Governor Gehlot had sought a detailed report from the state government on Thursday after a complaint surfaced claiming MUDA carried out several projects in breach of regulations, reportedly following verbal directives from Siddaramaiah.

The petitioner alleged that MUDA executed development projects worth ₹387 crore in the Varuna and Srirangapatna constituencies, both of which are represented by the CM himself.

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The Governor had stirred controversy on August 31 by approving the sanction to prosecute Siddaramaiah over the alleged scam based on three petitions filed by individuals T J Abraham, Pradeep and Snehamayi Krishna.

Several state ministers and other Congress workers had expressed their objection towards Gehlot's decision and participated in a 'Raj Bhavan Chalo' protest. The Congress party also accused Gehlot of bias, claiming that while several other cases await his decision, he has been slow to act on them.

Google Trends

According to Google Trends, interest in the search term "Siddaramaiah" surged on Tuesday afternoon, peaking around 2 PM. This spike followed the Karnataka High Court's rejection of a petition from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that challenged Governor Thawarchand Gehlot's approval for his prosecution in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam case. Most searches came from Karnataka, with related queries including "MUDA scam" and “High Court of Karnataka.”