BENGALURU : The Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government on Friday issued an order for handing over the corruption case of Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation to a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The corruption case of Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation came to light after an official of the Corporation died by suicide and left a note containing an allegation of multi-crore corruption in the corporation.
The official identified as Chandrasekaran (45), a resident of the Kenchappa colony in Vinobanagar, allegedly died by suicide on May 26 after leaving a note containing an allegation of multi-crore corruption in the corporation. Chandrasekaran was a superintendent with the MVDC and was posted at its Bengaluru office.
In a six-page suicide note recovered by police, Chandrasekaran mentioned the names of three officials and alleged corruption worth crores in the corporation, demanding action against the named officials.
A case has been registered in this regard at the Vinobanagar police station. On Wednesday, a team from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Karnataka police inspected Chandrasekaran’s residence. The team found the deceased official’s bag, which included a pen drive and laptop, among other items.
His wife, Kavitha, said that the name of MD Padmanabhan of Valmiki Corporation was on the pen drive.
The matter has led to political outrage, with the BJP attacking the state government.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader CN Ashwath Narayan slammed the Karnataka government on Friday, calling it non-functional for its ‘inability to take action’ over Maharishi Valmiki Corporation official’s death and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Speaking to the media here, the former deputy chief minister of Karnataka said, “Probably in the history of India, pre-independence or post-independence such a kind of scam where directly drawing of money, transferring of money or opening of an account to benami accounts is really surprising.”
“And to expose this scam, an officer has to lose his life. In his death note, he mentioned how this government has been functioning, how the minister has been involved, and this government, how is officially involved. The Chief Minister is directly accountable since he is the finance minister,” said Ashwath Narayan.
Adding further, he said, “Even after 5 days, the Chief Minister has not taken action, the minister should have been arrested. The government is completely non-functional. The Chief Minister should resign.”
Earlier, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said that the Home Minister and Chief Minister have already ordered for an inquiry and whoever may have done this, will be punished.
“We have got the death note. The Home Minister and Chief Minister have already ordered an inquiry, and we have taken it seriously to investigate it. Whoever may have done this, will be punished,” he said.
Karnataka BJP chief BY Vijayendra demanded a transparent investigation into the officer’s death.
Karnataka Minister B Nagendra said that the action will be taken based on the CID and FSL report. (ANI)