NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a plea by the Enforcement Directorate against the Karnataka High Court's order which quashed the criminal proceedings in a money laundering case against State Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's wife B M Parvathi in connection with a scam in Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land allotment.
A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran also recorded its concern over the alleged misuse of the Enforcement Directorate for political purposes.
"Let political battles be fought in the electorate. Why are you being used," the court asked Additional Solicitor General S V Raju.
"Please don't ask us to open our mouth, otherwise, we will be forced to make some harsh comments about the ED," the bench also cautioned the law officer, who promptly agreed to withdraw the special leave petition.
"We will withdraw but this should not be treated as a precedent," Raju said.
On March 7, this year, the Karnataka High Court had quashed the alleged money laundering proceedings initiated against Parvathi and Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged illegal allotment of sites by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority.
Parvathi had contended that she had surrendered the 14 sites, and that she was neither in possession of nor enjoying any ‘so-called proceeds of crime’.
She had questioned the haste with which the ED initiated proceedings under PMLA based on the basis of an FIR registered by the Lokayukta police on trial court’s order in the case of alleged illegality in allotment of sites to various persons by MUDA.
It was alleged that Siddaramaiah used his political influence to get compensation for 14 sites in the name of his wife Parvathi in lieu of three acres and 16 guntas of land acquired by the MUDA.
The land was originally acquired by MUDA for Rs 3.24 lakh. The compensation in the form of 14 sites at the posh Vijayanagar locality in Mysuru was worth approximately Rs 56 crore.
The opposition parties claimed the scam related to the allocation of compensatory sites by the MUDA was to the tune Rs 4,000 Cr.
