Will Rahul Gandhi seek Cong MP Naik’s resignation in MUDA scam: BJP’s Lahar Singh Siroya
Bengaluru: After the Karnataka Lokayukta indicted Congress MP G. Kumar Naik, the retired IAS officer-turned-politician, in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam case, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Lahar Singh Siroya has questioned whether Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will seek his resignation.
Taking to social media, Siroya stated, “I read in the papers today that the Lokayukta investigation report has said that the MUDA scam, involving Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s family, was due to the illegalities committed by G. Kumar Naik, the then deputy commissioner of Mysuru, and three other officers.”
“G. Kumar Naik quit the IAS suddenly before the LS polls in 2024 and is now a sitting Congress MP from Raichur in Karnataka. Can we read his Lok Sabha ticket as a huge compensation for the favours he delivered to the Congress leaders while in service? As an officer, has he committed other such illegalities like the MUDA scam, to receive big political favours from the Congress party? Was AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge aware of his integrity as an IAS officer? Is the State government machinery working overtime to throw officers under the bus to save the chief minister and his family? Will this become counterproductive? Is this not going to demoralise the state’s bureaucracy? Siroya raised questions.
“Now that Kumar Naik has retired from service, will he be penalised? Or has he become immune to action? Will Indian National Congress, Karnataka Congress unit and Rahul Gandhi, who speak of morality all the time, get Naik to resign as Raichur MP? Or will they brazen it out because they are great liberals who are working to ‘save’ Indian democracy? Siroya ridiculed.
“The investigation concludes that CM Siddaramaiah and family were absolutely innocent and had no role in the illegal allocation of 14 sites. If this is true, then it leads to a few obvious questions. I had tweeted about Kumar Naik earlier too: First and foremost this is an admission that the MUDA scam is real and not fictitious, as some Congressmen have tried to argue. This scam is nobody’s witch hunt but their own doing.”
“Did the officers act on their own or were they pressured to commit illegalities by their political masters is still an open question. It is difficult to believe that an IAS officer violates the law and creates fictitious records out of his own sweet will. He must have come under pressure, and in return, he must have sought protection and compensation,” Siroya charged.
“A CBI enquiry may have solved this mystery of political pressure on the officers. It may still not be late to seek one in the light of the Lokayukta report,” he stated.
Karnataka Lokayukta has given a clean chit to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (named as accused number one), his wife B.M. Parvathi (the second accused), and CM’s brother-in-law, Mallikarjunaswamy (the third accused). The probe has also given a clean chit to the fourth accused land owner, J. Devaraju.
Reacting to the charges, MP Kumar Naik stated on Tuesday that he has not seen the Lokayukta report yet. “Once the report is available the future course of action will be taken. During the time of alienation, the de-notification of the land was done. The rule says compensation for land is the land only. The rule won’t stipulate otherwise. When the application is filed for alienation, it is our duty to carry it out in 90 days’ time,” he stated.
Further responding to the Lokayukta report, MP Kumar Naik stated that the land was de-notified before it came under government acquisition. “We carried out the acquisition only after thorough verification,” he said.
