Overview

• ED arrested former MUDA commissioner G.T. Dinesh Kumar after searches at two Bengaluru residences and a special PMLA court has sent him to ED custody until September 26.
• Investigators allege Kumar enabled illegal MUDA site allotments during 2022–2024 using ineligible beneficiaries, fake or incomplete documents and backdated letters.
• According to the ED, gratification from the alleged allotments was routed through a cooperative society and relatives’ accounts, amounting to money laundering.
• The money-laundering case originates from a Karnataka Lokayukta FIR that names Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and others, even as the Desai Commission and Lokayukta earlier found no wrongdoing by the CM’s family and the Supreme Court upheld quashing ED proceedings against his wife.
• The ED says it has provisionally attached 252 MUDA sites with an estimated market value of about Rs 400 crore and describes Dinesh Kumar’s role as instrumental, with further investigation ongoing.