Bengaluru:  Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has approached the Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court to challenge a Single Judge’s order upholding Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s sanction to prosecute him in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case.

In his appeal filed on Oct. 23, Siddaramaiah seeks to quash the order issued by Justice M. Nagaprasanna on Sept. 24. The Chief Minister has named the Governor’s office and complainants T.J. Abraham, Snehamayi Krishna, and S.P. Pradeep Kumar as respondents in the matter.

While the High Court Registry has numbered the appeal, it has not yet scheduled a hearing. Last month, Justice Nagaprasanna dismissed Siddaramaiah’s plea challenging the Governor’s sanction, granted on applications by the three complainants to pursue corruption charges related to land MUDA allotted to Siddaramaiah’s wife, B.M. Parvathi.

Justice Nagaprasanna noted that the allegations against Siddaramaiah “undoubtedly require investigation,” stating, “The facts narrated in the petition would undoubtedly require investigation, in the teeth of the fact that the beneficiary of all the acts is not anybody outside but the family of the petitioner.” Consequently, the petition was dismissed.

Following this, the Special Court of Sessions for criminal cases involving former and current MLAs and MPs, responding to a complaint by Mysuru-based social activist Snehamayi Krishna, directed the Lokayukta Police on Sept. 25 to register an FIR against Siddaramaiah, his wife and two others and to investigate the case.

Subsequently, Parvathi requested MUDA to cancel 14 sites allotted to her, which MUDA accepted. Following the FIR registration, the Enforcement Directorate, acting on a separate complaint from Krishna, registered an Enforcement Case Information Report related to the MUDA case and recently conducted searches at the MUDA office in Mysuru.