Siddaramaiah made the claim a day after a special Karnataka court ordered the Lokayukta to conduct a probe against him over alleged irregularities in the Muda case, paving the way to register an FIR against the Chief Minister.
Karanataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has claimed that he will not resign and repeated the same misdeeds in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case.
His statement came a day after a special court ordered the Lokayukta to investigate into some irregularities against him in the case, which paved the way to registering an FIR against the Chief Minister.
“Did the Prime Minister step down following the Godhra riots as his honour as the Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time? (Former Karnataka Chief Minister) HD Kumaraswamy, who is a Union Minister now, is accused of corruption. Will he quit?” he questioned.
His observations were made when the opposition BJP went on to hold a protest in front of the Karnataka Assembly early in the day, which demanded the Chief Minister’s resignation.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar also dismissed the possibility of Siddaramaiah quitting.
The special court, in its order on Wednesday, asked the Lokayukta to furnish a report within three months and passed an order, directing authorities to file an FIR in the case.
The Karnataka High Court had yesterday dismissed Siddaramaiah’s petition challenging the legality of the Governor’s nod to an investigation against him.
It is open to the Governor to take independent decisions if extraordinary circumstances do arise, observed the court while adding that his order does not suffer from non-application of mind, the judgment read.
Prosecution sanction was granted to the Governor in July this year following complaints by three activists against the Chief Minister in the MUDA case.
The Chief Minister had moved the High Court challenging the approval for investigation under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.
The Muda case pertains to an allegation that compensatory sites were given to Siddaramaiah’s wife BM Parvathi in a high-priced locality in Mysuru whose land property value was higher than the one she owned which was “acquired” by the authority.
The authority had allotted plots under a 50:50 ratio scheme to Parvathi in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where the authority developed a residential layout.
