ED raids residences of former minister Nagendra, MLA Daddal in Valmiki Corporation scam case

BENGALURU: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday raided Congress minister B N Nagendra’s residence in connection with the alleged corruption in the Maharshi Valmiki Schedule Tribe Development Corporation. The ED also detained his personal assistant, Harish, over suspicion of his alleged role in moving around crores of rupees.

Nagendra’s assistant was also detained.

On Wednesday, the ED officials conducted raids at 18 different locations including Nagendra’s Dollar’s Colony residence in Bengaluru and Ballari. The officials were questioning Nagendra for more than three hours and collecting documents. The development comes a day after Nagendra was issued a notice by the Karnataka SIT to join the investigation.

Nagendra’s house in Ballari was also searched.

Raids were also being conducted at the residences of MLA Basanagouda Daddal in Raichur and Bengaluru, Union Bank officials Suchi Smita an Deepa, credit officer Krishnamurthy, Valimiki corporation MD J J Padmanabh, accounts officer Parashuram.

The ED had registered an ECIR against Nagendra on June 6 and had questioned J J Padmanabh and Parashuram on June 7 at the Parappana Agrahara central prison. On June 8, the officials had questioned Nekkunti Nagaraj, Nageshwar Rao and Satyanarayana Verma following which the raids were conducted.

The ED also raided MLA Basanagouda Daddal’s residence at Yelahanka .

Reacting to the development, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “Let the ED do their work, we will not interfere with it. They have to do it as per rules”. However, he said he had no information if the ED was taking Nagendra into custody.

Home Minister G Parameshwara said, “The SIT had on Tuesday asked Daddal and Nagendra to join the investigation. They were asked to appear today also. In the meantime, the ED has raided Daddal’s house and office. I don’t know on what basis they conducted the raid, so I cannot react to it. To a question, he said the ED or CBI do not keep the state government informed and operate independently. “They are doing their job. There is no question of embarrassment to the government”, he said.