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ACB raids: ₹13.5L seized from pipe at govt staff’s residence in Karnataka
The ACB searched houses, offices, and residences across Mangaluru, Bengaluru, Mandya, Kalburgi, among others, the ACB said in a statement. More than 300 ACB staff, including eight Superintendent of Police rank officers, took part in the massive raids, the agency added.
Officials of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday had to use a bucket to drain out ₹13.50 lakh in cash, stuffed inside the waterpipe of Public Works Department (PWD) junior engineer Shanta Gouda, during a raid in Kalaburgi district.
They also recovered ₹15 lakh in cash from the ceiling of the house. In all, they seized more than ₹55 lakh from his residence.
According to officials, Gouda didn’t answer the door for 15 minutes even as the team was continuously knocking on the door. They found that during this time Gouda and his son were stashing cash into the wash basin outlet. After gaining entry, they had to cut open the pipe and confiscate the cash.
The anti-corruption agency conducted simultaneous search operations at 68 locations related to 15 government officials, said a brief statement from the department. The ACB searched houses, offices, and residences across Mangaluru, Bengaluru, Mandya, Kalburgi, among others, the ACB added.
The raids were conducted on the heels of an ongoing operation at the headquarters and other offices of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in Bengaluru. More than 300 ACB staff, including eight Superintendent of Police rank officers, took part in the massive raids.
Among those who were raided was Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) official LC Nagaraj, out on bail after he was arrested in July 2019 for his alleged involvement in the I-Monetary Advisor (IMA) ponzi scam case in 2019The IMA scam pertains to over ₹4,000 crores collected by the IMA Group from over 100,000 investors in the name of providing attractive returns on investment following Islamic ways.
IMA was an investment banking company run by Mahommed Mansoor Khan, who claimed it was a sharia-compliant operation run on Islamic principles and which took huge deposits primarily from members of the Muslim community. When IMA stopped paying dividends in March 2019, investors lodged complaints with the police and in June 2019, the Karnataka government set up an SIT to investigate the more than 51,500 complaints that had been filed by investors.
A special investigation team (SIT) probing the scam arrested Nagaraj he was the assistant commissioner (Bengaluru North), charging him with taking a bribe of ₹4.5 crores to submit a favourable report on Khan’s company.
Official supervising the raid said that ACB found gold, cash, and other valuables at the KAS officer’s house in Bengaluru. The raid is still underway, and Nagaraj is yet to produce documentation for the seized articles, the officer said. “We can’t disclose the value of the property that has been seized. During the raids, we have found valuables that could run into several lakhs of rupees, especially gold ornaments. The officer has claimed he purchased them taking big loans, but he is yet to produce relevant documents. Also, we have found that he was using Benamis (proxies), he will have to explain those assets as well,” said the officer, who did not want to be named.
In the Gadag district, ACB officials unearthed around 7kg of gold worth ₹3.5 crores and ₹15 lakh cash at the residence of TS Rudreshappa, joint director, agriculture department, Gadag.
The ACB also seized assets (moveable and immovable) to the tune of ₹13 crores from the premises of Mayanna M, a first division clerk Major Roads and Infrastructure at Bengaluru civic body BBMP. “Even he has used several Benami properties registered to his wife, mother-in-law and some friends. We have raided four locations related to Mayanna. He is yet to provide explanations for the disproportionate assets. Legal proceedings will be followed,” the officer added.
Mayanna, in his statement to ACB, disassociated himself from the person who ACB alleged to be his proxies, said ACB. However, Umadevi, one of the alleged associates of Mayanna, said she was known to Mayanna but did not have any financial transactions with him. Umadevi is alleged to be a proxy for Mayanna. “He (Mayanna) has been targeted because they (unspecified) fear that he would become bigger than them. He recently participated in the Sahitya Parishat election. So, raid against him me (?) an attempt to target those who are close to Mayanna. We have not done anything illegal… I have been living with my son since my husband died 20 years ago,” said Umadevi.
ACB officials said all 15 officials were raided based on specific information about them collecting bribes.
In another case, Rajashekar, who worked as a physiotherapist at Yelahanka government hospital, has purchased three BDA sites, two revenue sites besides five acres of land in Doddaballapur taluk near Bengaluru. Most of the purchases were made during and post Covid pandemic.
In a statement, the ACB said the raids were conducted on the properties of KS Lingegowda, (Executive Engineer, Mangaluru Smart City Limited), Lakshminarashimaiah (Revenue Inspector at Doddaballapur), Srinivas K (Executive Engineer of Hemavati Left Bank Canal (HLBC)), Vasudev (former project manager of Nirmiti Kendra) and others.
