Lokayukta Catches its Own Man, 7 Govt Officials for Amassing Crores

Bangalore, Dec 19 (PTI): One head constable attached to Karnataka Lokayukta (Bangalore) and seven other government officials today came under the Lokayukta net with its police officials unearthing from them Rs 7.5 crore worth allegedly disproportionate assets.

Speaking to reporters here, Lokayukta ADGP Satyanarayana Rao said the disproportionate assets held by the eight were unearthed in raids conducted at 25 premises spread across Bangalore, Chikkaballapur, Mysore, Chikkamagalur, Hasan and Tumkur districts.

He said Rs 55.25 lakh worth disproportionate assets belonging to Lokayukta head constable Channabasavaiah were unearthed by Lokayukta police in raids at Ramohalli near here.

Police also seized Rs 1.24 lakh cash, 171 grams gold and 2.5 kgs of silver during the raid conducted on a complaint, against Channabasavaiah, who has been serving Lokayukta police since 2006, he said.

Others who came under the Lokayukta net included B Guruprasad, Chief Engineer, Karnataka Housing Board, S K Paramesh, Director (technical) KSRTC, Gopal R, Director of Archaeology department, N Nagaraju Executive Engineer, Panchayat Raj department, Vincent Rosario, head clerk in Kadur, T K Lakshminarayana Reddy, food clerk in Tumkur and Keerthi Kumar, Secretary VSSN in Hassan.

Rao said Guruprasad amassed Rs 1.83 crore worth of disproportionate assets, while Gopal R Rs 1.77 crore worth of wealth and Nagaraju Rs 1.02 crore worth of properties. Rao also said Lokayukta would routinely inform the details of action taken against the corrupt officials to the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate.

Meanwhile, Lokayukta police trapped Bijapur Municipal Corporation Revenue Officer S S Bagalkot while allegedly accepting Rs one lakh bribe from a leather merchant for sanctioning petty shops on lease.