Valmiki Corporation former MD alleges harassment by ED officials, high court stays FIR

BENGALURU: One among the accused of  multi-crore scam, former managing director Kallesh, has alleged that Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials Mittal and Muruli Kannan had been pressurising him mentally and torturing him to take the name of former minister Nagendra over his his involvement in the Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation case.

A complaint had been filed against the two ED officer at the Wilson Garden police station in this regard. Kallesh has stated in his complaint that the ED officials threatened to arrest him and send him to jail for two years if he didn’t cooperate with their investigation.

He also said that they promised him to help and would let him go only if he admitted that the Finance Department had instructed Nagendra to deposit the money in the MG Road bank account. Kallesh has claimed that he has done nothing wrong and is being harassed by ED officials for no reason.

Meanwhile, the  ED officials had approached the High Court of Karnataka to quash the FIR filed against them at the Wilson Garden police station. The ED’s lawyer, NSG Aravind Kamat and public prosecutor, Shashikiran Shetty, were present.

On Tuesday evening, the high court stayed the FIR against the two ED officers registered at the Wilson Garden police station. The case has been posted to August 21 for further hearing.

In another development, a petition was filed by Union Bank seeking a stay on the SIT probe into the scam. The bank has argued that the CBI should investigate the case as the alleged irregularities exceed Rs 50 crore. The court has issued a notice to the CBI and adjourned the hearing to August 7.