BENGALURU: The Lokayukta police on Tuesday conducted raids on 63 locations linked to 13 government officials across the state in connection with amassing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.
A team of about 200 personnel conducted raids at three locations in Bengaluru, two each in Kalaburagi and Bidar, Ballari, Koppal, Chikkaballapur, Mysuru, Kolar and Dharwad. The officials were raided for owning disproportionate assets.
A team of the Lokayukta police raided Bescom Executive Engineer (Jayanagar subdivision) H D Channakeshava at Amruthahalli, Jakkur, and found Rs 6 lakh in cash, 3 kg of gold, 28 kg of silver, diamonds worth Rs 25 lakh, property documents, all totalling Rs 1.5 crore. They also found Rs 92 lakh in cash at his brother’s house.
The raid was conducted at his apartment at Mithun White Water in Amruthahalli. Channakeshava was in the house at the time of the raid and seemed shocked. The Lokayukta officials arranged for medicines to stabilise his blood pressure. Channakeshava was part of the Bescom team which had raided former CM H D Kumaraswamy’s house for illuminating it by drawing illegal power.
Teams of the Lokayukta police also raided five premises belonging to H S Krishnamurthy, chief executive of the Kaniminike milk producers’ cooperative society, Kumbalgod, and uncovered assets worth crores.
Shockingly, Krishnamurthy, who draws a salary of Rs 16,000 per month, had amassed huge wealth. Though the cooperative society generates Rs 2 lakh revenue daily, Krishnamurthy showed earnings of only Rs 10,000. He would buy milk from farmers separately and sell it to apartments and private schools, it is alleged.
The Lokayukta police also raided five locations belonging to Bescom DGM (vigilance) T N Sudhakar Reddy including his house at Defence Colony near Sathanur close to Bagalur Cross. Sudhakar Reddy has been working in the post for the last 2.5 years at the KR Circle office.
Lokayukta Superintendent of Police Vamshi Krishna said raids were conducted on five locations linked to Sudhakar Reddy including agricultural land in Chikkaballapur district and his relatives’ house. The sleuths also raided Tele India company at Kodigehalli in which Reddy is a director and employs about 700-800 people.
“So far, we have found documents related to properties including 12 acres of agricultural land, but we have not found cash. We are scrutinising all the documents”, the Lokayukta SP said.
Others raided include Sunil, a vendor at the veterinary university in Bidar, who residence and commercial complex were checked; KRIDL superintending engineer Thimmarajappa’s house at Shivabasavanagar in Belagavi, Chandrashekar of the Mines and Geology department at Hosapete in Vijayanagar, Deputy RFO Maruthi’s houses in Kampli and Gangavathi; Horticulture Department Deputy Director Munegowda and his wife’s houses at Nandi Cross in Chikkaballapur and his native village KG Pura, including his first wife’s house in Bengaluru and his second wife’s house in Yalavalli; Dr Prabhulinga Mankar, DHO of Yadgir, in Kalaburagi. He is the brother-in-law of BJP state president B Y Vijayendra; the Ranebennur and Dharwad residences of Basavaraj Malimath, a retired storekeeper with Hescom; Kampli municipal council environment engineer Sharanappa’s house in Gangavathi.
Interestingly, the Lokayukta police raided 13 locations belonging to Mahadevaswamy, a lecturer at the Nanjangud first grade government college. He was allegedly running MS Group Company in his family’s name, had a 100×100 sqft site for car park and properties worth crores. He was running an educational institution, steel business, garments and silk shops.