Following a series of raids conducted in connection to cases of disproportionate assets across Karnataka, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Karnataka arrested police inspector Victor Simon on Wednesday. The raid was conducted at 28 locations against nine officers in 11 districts of Karnataka, all of whom were accused of possessing disproportionate wealth. The ACB on Tuesday released the names of the officers-- Krishnegowda, Hanumantha Shivappa Chikkannanavara, Subramanya K Vaddar, Munigopal Raju, Channaveerappa, Raju Pattar, Victor Simon, K Subramanyam, K M Pratham.
During the raids, the ACB searched Victor Simon’s residence at Kasavanahalli in Bengaluru and his Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force office, along with the residences of his father and father-in-law at Mysuru were searched.
The searches revealed that the police inspector possessed assets worth Rs 2.3 crore, which is over 257% of his income. The ACB found that the inspector possesses a flat in the National Games Village locality of Bengaluru, a large house and nearly 10 acres of farmland at two locations in Mysuru. He was also found in possession of household articles worth nearly Rs 21 lakh and 22.36 litres of liquor, which includes foreign brands. Apart from these, 500 grams of gold jewellery in bank lockers, bond papers worth Rs 1 crore and over Rs 7.26 lakh in cash were also seized. ACB officials also found records of Simon’s travels abroad on several occations.
According to the ACB, Simon was uncooperative with the officials during the raids, for which he has been remanded to police custody until Saturday.
“We initially started the investigation after we got credible information that he had amassed a lot of property. As of now he has been produced to a court and he is in police custody. Currently we are conducting enquiries to know more details,” said Kuldeep Kumar Jain, ACB Superintendent of Police, Bengaluru.