In a major crackdown against Karnataka government officials accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income, the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Karnataka on Wednesday, March 16, raided 18 officers across 75 locations in 10 districts, including Bengaluru, ACB officials said. The ACB teams comprising 100 officers and 300 personnel swooped down on the government officials at daybreak.
Sources in the ACB said a note counting machine and 3.17 kg of sandalwood was found from Badami range forest officer Shivananda Khedagi in the district headquarters town of Bagalkote. The ACB sleuths detected 450 kg of gold, 5 kg silver ornaments, 25 acres of land, 12 residential plots and Rs 1.5 lakh cash from Shirastedar of Gadag district BS Annigeri. The gold ornaments were allegedly hidden in a dustbin to escape the glare of ACB officials.
The ACB said those who were raided on Wednesday include Additional Commissioner Transport in Bengaluru Gnanendra Kumar; BDA Town Planning Officer Rakesh Kumar; Range Forest Officer of Yadgir, Ramesh Kankatte; executive engineer of Gokak Basavaraj Shekar Reddy Patil; and Vijayapura Nirmiti Kendra project manager Gopinath Malagi.
Industries and Commerce Additional Director B K Shivakumar, Ramanagara Assistant Commissioner Manjunath, Social Welfare Department General Manager Srinivas, Davangere environment officer Maheshwarappa, Haveri APMC assistant engineer Krishnan, Gundlupet excise inspector Chaluvaraj, N H supervising assistant engineer Girish, Vijayanagara police station inspector Balakrishna H N were also among those raided by the ACB.
From the residence of AGO J Gnanendra Kumar, the additional commissioner for Transport and Road safety, the ACB said it has seized gold and silver jewellery and Rs 2.24 lakh in cash.
Last year in November, sleuths of Anti Corruption Bureau had similarly carried out searches at 60 locations across Karnataka. As many as 400 ACB officials had raided the premises of 15 officers of various departments, in the state capital, Mangaluru, Mandya and Ballari.
At the time, visuals of officials finding cash inside a drain pipe had gone viral on social media. Videos showed wads of cash falling out from a drainage pipe at the residence of Shantana Gowda, an Assistant Engineer in the Public Works Department in Kalaburagi. An ACB official said that while Rs 13 lakh was recovered from the pipe alone, a total of Rs 54 lakh in cash was found at the engineer’s residence during the raid. Visuals showed the officials collecting all the cash in a yellow bucket that filled up to the brim with Rs 500 notes pulled out of the pipe.