Kundapur: Lokayukta raid on Gangolli port - Officer arrested
Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur
Kundapur, Dec 6: The Udupi Lokayukta officials on Friday December 6 swooped down on the district's prime port at Gangolli here and unearthed unaccounted cash worth thousands of rupees.
Assistant port officer Kishore Mada of Mangalore was arrested in this regard and produced in court.
Complaints regarding charging ten times more than the stipulated fee for boat licence renewals were heard here over the last few years. The Lokayukta officials who gathered the information on the allegation, kept a close watch on the functions at the department for the last ten days. Once the information was confirmed, they conducted the raid on Friday, December 6.
On Friday too, one boat owner paid him Rs 45,000 and another owner Rs 10,000.
During the raid, the Lokayukta officials found amount exceeding Rs 80,000 in the office, out of which, Rs 39,700 was unaccounted for.
The Lokayukta officials seized the illegal money and the documents, and arrested Mada and produced him before the district additional magistrate. He was sent to judicial custody.
Udupi Lokayukta DySP Umesh Shet, inspector Mohan Kottar and other officials were part of the raid operation.
From several years, boat owners have been repeatedly expressing anguish over collection of exorbitant licence renewal fee. Having no other go and unable to confront the officer, the owners were forced to pay the fee demanded by him. The boat owners on Friday welcomed the raid conducted by the Lokayukta.