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SIT raids houses of Janardhan Reddy, 7 others in Bellary

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Janardhan Reddy

Bellary: A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Lokayukta today raided the houses of former state Minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy and seven others, including two legislators, in connection with alleged export of iron ore illegally from Belikere port.

“The SIT officials of Karnataka Lokayukta raided the houses of Janardhan Reddy and seven others including two legislators at three different locations in Belikere,” a SIT official told PTI here.

The six-member team led by Shailendra Kumar also raided the houses of two MLAs – B Nagendra (independent) and Suresh Babu (BJP) – along with Swastik Nagaraj, a close aide of Reddy and others, the official said.

The raids were conducted at Kampli, Ballari and Hospete, the official said.

The team has seized documents pertaining to the illegal export of iron ore from Belikere port, the official said. “The team is scrutinising the documents,” he said.

The illegal export of iron ore from Belikeri port in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district was exposed by former Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde, who in his report had said 7.74 million tonnes of iron ore were illegally exported between 2006-2007 and 2010-11, causing huge loss to the exchequer.

(PTI)

Anti-corruption organization caught in corruption; Lokayukta’s house, office raided

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Lokayukta scam

Bengaluru: The ongoing probe with regard to the allegations of corruption taking place in the Lokayukta office, led the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to make a thorough search of the official residence and office of Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao. The team managed to procure certain documents.

The search at the residence and office took place in the absence of Bhaskar Rao. Officials, though confirmed the search, refused to state any details based on the documents recovered.

Officials state that investigations began after few touts were arrested. They also said that a deeper analysis of phone records revealed that conspirators were present at the official residence and at the Lokayukta’s office to plan the operations.

“Thus we have two places where crime has taken place,” said an investigating official.
Sources claim that a complaint was filed by an Irrigation Department employee, Chennabasappa against Ashwin Y.

According to the complaint, Chennabasappa had met Ashwin at the Lokayukta’s official residence. At present, Ashwin is the main accused in the case and is in the custody of SIT.

The team was successful in raiding many locations which include two places that belong to Ashwin’s father Bhaskar Rao. SIT has recovered few documents that were seized from Ashwin’s Hyderabad house.

(Agencies)

Lokayukta joint commissioner Syed Riyaz arrested

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Lokayukta scam

Bengaluru: Karnataka Lokayukta joint commissioner Syed Riyaz was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Sunday night for his alleged involvement in collecting bribes from state officials.

“We have taken Riyaz into custody from a private hospital where he was taking treatment for blood pressure and diabetes,” said a senior investigating officer.

As part of its probe into the graft charges against some unidentified officials in the watchdog, though the SIT team summoned Riyaz for interrogation, he delayed by extending his leave from July 17 to July 31 on returning from pilgrimage to Makkah on July 19.

“Preliminary investigation and interrogation of three suspected extortionists whom we arrested last week revealed that Riayz was one of the kingpins in threatening many officials of booking graft cases and raiding their premises if they did not pay up over the years,” the officer said.

The SIT, headed by Additional Director General of Police Kamal Pant, was set up by the state government on the request of Lokayukta, Justice (retd.) Y. Bhaskar Rao on June 30 to probe the graft charges, including a bribe of Rs.1 crore sought allegedly by his son Ashwin Rao.

The SIT is also on the lookout for Riyaz’s brother-in-law Sadiq for allegedly being part of the extortionist gang.

The three co-accused in the scam are Ashok Kumar, Srinivas Gowda and Shankare Gowda, who used to threaten officials and extort money after collecting information against them through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

(Agencies)

Extortion racket: SIT arrests Karnataka Lokayukta’s son Ashwin Rao

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Ashwin Rao

Bengaluru: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Monday arrested Karnataka Lokayukta Bhaskar Rao son, Ashwin Rao, for allegedly running an extortion from the ombudsman’s office. He was arrested by the team led by DCP Labhu Ram in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

Ashiwn will be brought back to Bengaluru by evening. Meanwhile, his arrest has delivered a serious blow to embattled Lokayukta Rao, who has been refusing to quit despite protests from various quarters.

This is the second high-profile arrest in the case in less than 24 hours. On Sunday, Joint Commissioner (PRO) Syed Riyaz was held on the charges of the corruption by the SIT. He has been the PRO for the watch dog for 18 years now. So far six have been arrested in the case.

The SIT arrested Riyaz in connection with the FIR (56/2015) pertaining to threatening and attempting to extort money from PWD Executive Engineer M N Krishnamurthy. Though the SIT had already arrested three individuals, Riyaz is the first Lokayukta official to be arrested.

Sources said Riyaz had played a vital role in the Krishnamurthy case. Ashok Kumar, the first to be arrested by the SIT, had been in constant touch with Riyaz. Ashok, a realtor, had made several calls to Riyaz. The pattern of these calls is interesting as after each call from Ashok, Riyaz would immediately call Y Ashwin, son of Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao. Ashwin was named accused number one by the Lokayukta police in the FIR registered on July 1.

(Agencies)

Lokayukta scam case: two more held

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Lokayukta scam

Bengaluru: Two more accused have been arrested by the Special Investigation Team in the Lokayukta bribery case in the state.

M B Srinivasa Gowda(30), a journalist and a partner of the Biriyani Adda chain in Bengaluru, and his associate Shankaregowda(35), an RTI activist are the arrested.

They were arrested from a hotel in Rajajinagar in the city. They are the second and third accused respectively, and are both natives of Kolar district. They were arrested as per the information given by second accused Ashok Kumar, a realtor, who was arrested by the SIT on Tuesday.

Sources said that both Srinivasa Gowda and Shankaregowda, were assigned to gather information about corrupt officials and inform Ashok Kumar. Ashok Kumar, in turn, would call officials to extort money from them, sources said.

The Special Investigation Team also issued a notice to Ashwin Y, son of Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao, to appear in person before it within three days. Ashwin is the first accused in the extortion case.

Both the accused have been handed over to the SIT by Special Court Judge V G Bopaiah for interrogation till July 31 and were produced in the court by DCP Labhu Ram.

(Agencies)

SIT makes first arrest in Lokayukta scam

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Lokayukta scam

Bengaluru: Bangalore-based businessman Ashok Kumar was arrested and produced before the Lokayukta special court by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), who is investigating the case of corruption in anti-graft ombudsman, on Tuesday.

This is the first arrest made in the case.

The 30-year-old businessman, who is into real estate and sand transportation business, was the one who made calls to executive engineer M N Krishnamurthy of Bengaluru Zilla Panchayat.

As per the FIR registered against Ashwin (son of Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao), the accused had called Krishnamurthy to the office of Lokayukta PRO Syed Riyas, saying that the Lokayukta wanted to see them. At the office, Ashwin introduced himself as Krishna Rao and demanded a bribe of Rs one crore to avoid a Lokayukta police raid.

However, Krishnamurthy had refused to pay and had orally complained about the incident to Bengaluru Urban Division SP Sonia Narang last May.

The investigation team found that Ashok, a resident of Rajajinagar, was the one who had talked to Krishnamurthy on phone.  Thus finding out, Ashok’s role in the particular case.

The special court sent Ashok to SIT custody for 10 days.

(Agencies)

AAP demands SIT to probe funding of major parties

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File Photo

File Photo

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday said it will ask the leadership of BJP and Congress to agree for a probe by a Supreme Court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the funding of all the three major parties in the Delhi polls.

The party said it will write to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP President Amit Shah seeking their consent for the investigation, to bring transparency in the funding of political parties.

“AAP will write letters to BJP and Congress presidents requesting to cooperate in SIT probe about their fundings for clean politics,” senior AAP leader Ashutosh said in a tweet.

The party said that a five-member delegation of AAP will go to Supreme Court to request for the setting up of an SIT to probe the funding of the three political parties.

“Team of five leaders — Ashutosh, Kumar Vishwas. Sanjay singh, Ashish Khetan And Yogendra yadav will reach SC BY 1030 to request SIT PROBE (sic),” he tweeted.

“We are going to SUPREME COURT to hand over a letter to request to create an SIT to investigate the fundings of BJP, Congress and AAP,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site.

The AAP’s move came a day after a breakaway group of the party accused it of receiving Rs 2 crore from “dubious” companies.

Asserting that it adopted “total transparency” in its funding, AAP’s Yogendra Yadav in a late evening press conference on Monday accused BJP of attempting to influence the voters ahead of the February 7 polls by bringing out false allegations.

He was responding to allegations by AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM), a breakaway group of the Aam Aadmi Party, which accused the Kejriwal-led party of receiving Rs 2 crore last year through four “dubious” companies.

Mr. Yadav said “strangely instead of inquiring against AAP, the BJP ministers are today making allegations even after sitting on the files for eight months.”

The AAP also challenged the government to probe the allegations by any central investigating agency including the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.

(PTI)

Black money: List of around 627 people submitted to SC

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BLACK-MONEY

New Delhi: The Centre government on Wednesday submitted a list of 627 Indians having accounts in foreign banks in a sealed envelope to Supreme Court, which on Tuesday had pounded the government for not revealing all the information in the case.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted three sets of lists with the 627 names of people stashing untaxed or black money to the apex court, which fixed March 31, 2015 as the deadline to conclude the investigation into the case.

Rohatgi said more than half of the people in the list are Indian nationals while the rest are Non-Resident Indians. He said that most people named in the list, which was last updated in 2006, have their accounts with the HSBC Bank.

The apex court refused to open the envelope and directed to place documents before the Special Investigative team (SIT).

Only SIT chairman and vice chairman can open the sealed envelope containing names of account holders, said the SC.

The Supreme Court also directed the government to share the list with the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation. The case will be next heard on December 3 after the SIT submits its status report by November 30.

The first list submitted in the Supreme Court contains the details of treaties and agreements India has signed with Swtizerland and other nations where the illegal money is said to be stashed. The second list has all the names while the third list has a status report on the investigation in the case.

Rejecting its stand, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Centre to disclose all the names of black money holders abroad to it in a sealed envelope and slammed it for reluctance on the issue.

The apex court had some strong words for the new government for seeking modification of its earlier order on disclosure of all names saying this was accepted by the then UPA government.

“Why are you trying to protect people having bank accounts in foreign countries. Why are you providing a protective umbrella for all these people.

On Monday, the Centre revealed eight names of Indians holding illegal foreign bank accounts, which included consumer products giant Dabur India promoter Pradip Burman, Rajkot-based bullion trader Pankaj Chamanlal Lodhiya, Goa mining company Timblo Private Ltd and five of its directors – Radha Satish Timblo, Chetan S Timblo, Rohan S Timblo, Anna C Timblo and Mallika R Timblo.

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