A day after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) recovered an undisclosed amount of unaccounted cash after carrying out multiple raids on officials in Bengaluru, the bureau conducted raids on offices of officials in Belagavi, Bagalkot and Vijayapura on Saturday.
Raids were conducted on Chandragouda B Patil, Assistant Conservator of Forest, Khanapur sub division, Belagavi and Chidanand B Minchinal, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE), Rural Drinking Water Supply, Bagalkot, according to sources in the ACB.
The raids in Belagavi were conducted in three places - at the residence of Chandragouda in Ramathirtha Nagar in the city, his office in Khanapur and his brother's residence in Bailhongal.
Meanwhile, the raids on Chidanand were conducted on two of his residences in Vijayapura and his office at the Tahsildar Office premises in Bagalkot.
The raids which began as early as 6 am are still ongoing. They were conducted after allegations of irregularities were made against the officials. ACB SP Amarnath Reddy coordinated the simultaneous raids in three districts of northern Karnataka.
It comes a day after Rs. 5.25 crore and gold was seized from a raid on an official connected to the state government in Bengaluru.
On Friday, raids were conducted on S G Gowdaiah, engineer (Officer-5) of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and T R Swamy, chief development officer of Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) after allegations of disproportionate assets.
TR Swamy was seen flinging bundles of notes off his 14th floor apartment balcony when the raids were underway however he was caught in the act.
The ACB reports directly to the Chief Minister and was introduced by former CM Siddaramaiah at the expense of the Karnataka Lokayukta. It has been criticised for weakening the independence and investigative powers of the Lokayukta.
In March, the ACB raided 36 properties including the offices of nine government officials in Bengaluru, Kolar, Ramanagara, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Udupi.