Lokayukta raids in Karnataka unearth Rs 45 cr 'illegal riches'

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Lokayukta on Thursday raided 56 places across nine districts targeting 11 government officials having illegal wealth. 

The raids unearthed Rs 45.1 crore in unaccounted-for assets. 

Officials raided the houses of 11 government officials and their relatives in Chitradurga, Davangere, Kalaburagi, Mandya, Dharwad, Belagavi, Kolar, Mysuru and Hassan. Two of these officials are retired. 

Shekhar Gowda, project director, Nirmithi Kendra, Belagavi, was found to have the most both movable and immovable assets at Rs 7.88 crore. He owns five sites, four houses and 83 acres of farmland valued at Rs 6.73 crore. 

M Raveendra, a retired chief engineer of the Public Work Department, was found to possess disproportionate assets of Rs 5.75 crore.

Lokayukta officials searched four places linked to him in Chitradurga. He has four sites, six houses and 49.15 acres of agricultural land, all valued at Rs 3.92 crore, and movable assets of Rs 2.33 crore. 

Raids at five places in Davangere connected to D H Umesh, executive engineer (E), KPTCL, Chikkamagaluru, revealed disproportionate assets worth Rs 5.38 crore. He possesses four sites, four houses, two acres of agricultural land worth Rs 4.53 crore and movable assets worth Rs 55 lakh. 

Other officials raided by the Lokayukta were Mahadeva Bannur, AEE, Panchayati Raj Engineer Division, Belagavi (disproportionate assets worth Rs 97.51 lakh); M S Prabhakar, AEE(E), Bescom Vigilance Police Station, Davangere (Rs 2.01 crore); KG Jagadeesha, chief engineer, Public Works Department (Rs 5.26 crore) and Shivaraju S, retired executive engineer, Rural Drinking Water and Sanitisation Division, Mandya (DA Rs 5.08 crore). 

Raids were also carried out at properties belonging to Vijayanna, tahsildar, Harohalli, Ramanagara (disproportionate assets worth Rs 2.45 crore); Mahesh K, superintending engineer, Kabini and Varuna Nala Circle, Mysuru (Rs 3.79 crore); N M Jagadeesh, grade-1 secretary, Dasanapura gram panchayat, Bengaluru (Rs 3.79 crore), and Basavaraja Magi, revenue officer, Mahadevapura division, BBMP, Bengaluru (Rs 3.31 crore).

Cut-off box - Casino coins animal claws
Lokayukta officials found 586 casino coins and two claws of an animal at the house of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) revenue officer (Mahadevapura) Basavaraja Magi in Kalaburagi. A senior Lokayukta police officer told DH that the articles had been sent to the Forest Department for examination. The Forest Department will open a case if the articles are found to be genuine.