Mangalore: City Body Officials - Monthly Salary 12 Thousand, Assets- 75 Lac
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (MM/RD)
Pic - Dayanand Kukkaje
Mangalore, Jul 26: These Mangalore city corporation officials are on the pay-roll, earning a monthly salary of Rs 12,000 each.
And their personal assets' worth? Mere Rs 46 lac and Rs 75 lac. These assets have been unearthed by Lokayukta sleuths when they raided the residences of Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) town planning officers..
The value of the assets is likely to skyrocket once the raids are completed shortly. Lokayukta sleuths are confident of exposing larger amount of assets amassed by illegal means by these corrupt officers.
Speaking at a press conference held on Thursday July 26, Chandrashekhar Prasad, Mangalore Lokaykta SP, gave the details about the raid.
Both assistant town planning officers Manjunath Swamy and Shivaraj had joined the government service in 1989, stationed here in Mangalore for pretty 18 years. They could have hardly earned about Rs 17 lac in the form of salary, while they have amassed, even after looking after susteance and family expenses, three times more than their salary.
Manjunath Swamy has assets worth Rs 46 lac. It includes a Maruti Zen car, a Yamaha bike, furniture worth Rs 1.5 lac, gold ornaments, LIC policies worth Rs 10 lac, bank deposits worth Rs 10 lac in his wife Savita's account, 2 cheques of Rs 5 lac were also found in the office of Shivarajs’ brother-in-law. These cheques were drawn in his name by a certain Dinesh Pai of Akhil Associates. In addition to that 16 acres of land is owned at Birur where Manjunathaswamy's father resides.
Shivaraj owns property worth Rs 75 lac. It includes gold and silver ornaments, NSC bonds, shares, furniture, a Maruti car, motorcycle, 2 plots, a house at Doomappa Compound which would cost Rs 15 lac and land value would be Rs 20 lac, bank balance Rs 1.4 lac. More than that, Shivaraj's family has a total of 5 SB accounts with Corporation Bank.
Then fake, now real
These two officers were in the news a few months ago when a few private individuals, posing as fake Lok Ayukta officers, had "raided" these officials' houses. In return for 'hushin up' the case, in the dead of the night, they had paid a 'bribe' of Rs 12 lac to the fake Lok Ayukta officials.
When these officials complained to the police, the fake team was arrested. But neither the MCC, nor the government, nor the IT department bothered to find out why they had to pay a 'bribe' if they were clean. If the bribe itself amounted to Rs 12 lac, it was certain that the ill-gotten wealth could be manifold more.
Except for a few reports in the media and demand for an enquiry by a couple of organizations, no other citizens from Mangalore did seem to care about it.
Investigations are in progress in this regard, said Chandrashekhar Prasad.
Tip of the iceberg
After this fake raid, citizens were continuously complaining Lokayukta SP about these officers’ unaccounted properties. Accordingly, the raid was conducted with proper plans, Lokayukta SP added.
But some sources have confirmed that these two officers had advance information about the raid, because of which they were successful in hiding much of their assets. Hence, the Lok Ayukta police have seized only a part of their assets, sources say.
Raid reports:
The fake operation in Aug-Sep 2206: