Karnataka High Court quashes ED summons to CM Siddaramaiah’s wife, Minister Byrathi Suresh in MUDA scam

The Karnataka High Court on Friday quashed the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife, BM Parvathi, who is an accused in the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam..Single-judge M Nagaprasanna also quashed the summons issued by ED to Minister Byrathi Suresh, who is not named as an accused, but whom the ED has sought to question in the case..The Court had on January 27 stayed the summons issued to both Parvathi and Suresh..The order was passed on petitions filed by Parvathi and Suresh challenging the ED summons.Senior Counsel Sandesh Chouta, appearing for Parvathi, had told the Court that the ED was trying to initiate parallel proceedings by conducting an investigation into the alleged irregularities in the allotment of land sites by MUDA when the main issue was already being probed by the Lokayukta police and an SIT. He added that even the alleged proceeds of crime - being the land earlier allotted in her favour by MUDA - were not in Parvathi's possession, as she had surrendered it back to the authorities. .Additional Solicitor General of India, Arvind Kamath, appearing for ED, had countered by arguing that Parvathi was the second accused in the predicate offence (the illegal land allotment) and was being summoned as she had received proceeds of crime..The Court, however, concluded that it could not permit prosecution to continue against Parvathi when she was not in possession of any alleged proceeds of the crime. "The facts as on the date of registration of ECIR is that the petitioner (Parvathi) is not in possession, enjoyment and usage of sites that were allotted to her, as they have been surrendered and cancellation of allotment has happened. Therefore, there is no laundering in the case at hand," the Court said. .Meanwhile, Senior Counsel CV Nagesh, appearing for minister Suresh, argued that the summons issued to him should be quashed since the State minister was not even named as an accused in the predicate offence. He added that the questions sent to Suresh were unnecessarily intrusive as they even sought details of property belonging to his family. ASG Kamath contended that Section 50(2) of the PMLA gives the central agency powers to summon even non-accused for acquiring documents and records etc.After hearing both sides, the Court ruled in Suresh's favor, observing,"There is no prima facie case made out by the Enforcement Directorate to summon the petitioner (Suresh) and not stopping at summons, taking entire financial credentials of the petitioner, his family members, his close or distant relatives is undoubtedly violative of petitioner’s right to life."The Court, therefore, quashed the ED summons against both Parvathi and Suresh. .The case concerns allegations of corruption in the grant of land by MUDA to Siddaramaiah's wife, Parvathi.As per the complaint, Parvathi was ‘gifted’ a land plot measuring a little over three acres by her brother Swamy. The land was initially acquired, then de-notified and bought by Swamy. It was developed by MUDA even though private individuals owned it.Swamy has claimed that he bought the land in 2004 and gifted it to his sister. However, since the land was illegally developed by MUDA, Parvathi sought compensation. She allegedly received highly inflated compensation, including 14 developed alternate plots of land that were much higher in value than the original three acres, under a 50:50 scheme.The Mysore Lokayukta Police has already given a clean chit to CM Siddaramaiah, Parvathi and brother-in-law BM Mallikarjuna. .[Read Judgments]