ACB raids state bureaucrat over illegal land deals

The ACB has raided five locations simultaneously on Friday morning, all linked to a senior KAS officer K Ranganath over alleged land deals.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has now set its eyes on Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS), raiding multiple premises linked to KAS officer K. Ranganath, who is general manager of Karnataka Public Lands Corporation Ltd, on Friday morning, against whom an investigation is ongoing by the State Government.

ACB officials raided senior KAS officer K Ranganath over alleged illegal land deals. (Image for representation) (HT PHOTO)

Ranganath is accused to have allegedly allotted gomala land to private individuals without any proper documentation to account for it. This, reportedly, happened when Ranaganath was tahsildar of Bengaluru North taluk for three days.

This had allegedly prompted the Government to institute an inquiry against him and transfer him out, amidst other allegations of corruption.

A total of 42 officials from ACB, divided into five teams, reportedly raided five separate locations simultaneously, with all of them being linked to the officer. This included, his house in Judicial Layout near Yelahanka, another residence in Doddaballapur, his office called Kanaka Shri Trust and Akshaya School in Doddaballapur, his relative’s house in Nagarbhavi, and the Bengaluru North revenue sub-division office where he worked as assistant commissioner and where the alleged irregularities took place.

This is ACB's third such raid since mid-March, wherein the bureau had sought out middlemen allegedly involved in malpractices of the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) in one instance, and conducted simultaneous raids across 75 locations across the state, belonging to 18 government employees from various departments.

During search and seizure operations, ACB is said to have found that the officer and his family members, under benami names, had made transactions of several crores of rupees at a cooperative bank in Yelahanka over the last three years, according to a press release by the bureau.

Reports said 16 files pertaining to land deals have been seized by the ACB, in which the officer is suspected to have joined hands with land mafia and alienated public lands have also been seized. The ACB is now investigating whether the officer holds disproportionate assets, according to reports.

The officer is said to have committed these alleged frauds during his tenure as assistant commissioner (AC) in Bengaluru North.