BENGALURU: Income Tax (I-T) officials raided a builder at Ganesha Block in Sultanpalya on Thursday night and seized Rs 42 crore in cash apart from several documents. The cash, in Rs 500 denomination, was stored in cartons at the builder’s house and he reportedly admitted that it was to be delivered to a politician.
The builder, Ambika Pathy, and his family had vacated their house at Ganesha Block last January and had moved into a new house near Manyata Tech Park. The family had also taken on lease one floor in another building in Sultanpalya and another floor was rented out to another tenant. Ambika Pathy was reportedly operating from the leased premises. The I-T officials also conducted searches at the new house near Manyata Tech Park from Thursday evening.
The tenants who arrived early today morning from Tirupati, were shocked to find policemen and Income Tax officials at the premises. They were also questioned for some time.
The raids continued on Friday morning too and the I-T officials ordered breakfast through an online food delivery platform. It is said that Ambika Pathy was planning to move out the Rs 42 crore cash in a car to Tamil Nadu packed in grocery bags and boxes.
The family members initially refused to hand over the keys to the leased premises claiming that it was with their car driver who was away. The I-T officials then tracked down the car driver through his phone and was brought to the place. The cash was stacked under a bed in a room which had been locked.
Ambika Pathy’s wife Ashwathamma was elected corporator in 1995 and she is the sister of former MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy who was denied a Congress ticket this Assembly election. Ambika Pathy himself is vice-president of the Karnataka State Contractors’ Association which had made the 40 per cent commission allegation against the previous BJP government.
Ambika Pathy had made preparations to move out all the cash to Tamil Nadu in a car belonging to his close associate Shekhar Reddy and if the Income Tax officials had been an hour late, they could not have seized the cash.
The raids in the city on influential businessmen, medical professionals, builders and jewellers comes at a time when elections to five states has been announced and it is suspected that the seized cash was meant for election expenses. It is also being said that the cash was part of the 5.5 per cent commission to be paid for release of pending dues to BBMP contractors.
The I-T officials also seized 2.9 kg of gold, several kgs of silver and documents of properties worth Rs 150 crore. After about 20 hours of search at Ambika Pathy’s house in Ganesha Block and the leased premises in Atmananda Colony, the I-T officials, led by Commissioner Srinivas Rao, took custody of R A Pradeep, a relative of the builder, along with the huge amount of cash.
During the day, more I-T officials were called in for the search and the team ordered lunch through an online platform. The I-T team also requisitioned the services of a State Bank of India official, as Ambika Pathy has an account with the bank, and called in a cash van equipped with CCTV cameras all around to transport the seized cash. All the seized cash was later deposited in the SBI branch at Hebbal.