The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Bengaluru, has filed a prosecution complaint against former Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) commissioner G T Dinesh Kumar at a special court hearing cases against MPs or MLAs, in connection with an alleged land allotment scam. Kumar was arrested in September and is presently in judicial custody.
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“The evidences and documents collected during the course of investigation in this case has indicated active involvement of GT Dinesh Kumar in the comprehensive money laundering scheme perpetrated at MUDA, Mysuru during his tenure as commissioner,” the ED stated on Wednesday.
The complaint was filed before the court on November 14 under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
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Initially, the case was registered based on the First Information Report registered by the Lokayukta police following allegations of illegal allotment of MUDA sites. The ED has attached 283 illegally allotted MUDA sites and three other immovable properties worth Rs 450 crore as part of its ongoing probe.
The ED said that its probe revealed a large-scale scam in the allotment of MUDA sites by flouting various statutes and government orders or guidelines and by other fraudulent means. “The role of GT Dinesh Kumar has emerged as instrumental in illegal allotment of compensation sites to ineligible entities/individuals. The evidences with respect to obtaining bribe for making illegal allotments in the form of cash, bank transfer, movable/immovable properties have been gathered during the course of the investigation,” the central agency added.
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The modus operandi for making the alleged illegal allotments involved the identification of ineligible beneficiaries and making allotments using fake or incomplete documents, in violation of government orders, and also by back-dating allotment letters in some cases, the ED said.
The gratification received for making these illegal allotments was routed through a co-operative society and bank accounts of the relatives or associates of Kumar, who has played a key role in the allotment process, the agency added. The gratification, thus received, was further used to purchase some of these illegally allotted MUDA sites in the name of Kumar’s relatives, the ED further said.
The MUDA 50:50 land compensation scheme came under the scanner after an RTI activist alleged that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s family received an allotment of 14 sites in 2021 as compensation for a 3.16-acre property acquired by the Authority in Kesare village in Mysuru.