BENGALURU: Sleuths from Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday raided nine touts who allegedly operated in nexus with Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) officials. About 75 officials were scouring nine different places till late night.
“ACB conducted searches at nine different places pertaining to nine middlemen/agents/touts, suspected of influencing public servants by corrupt means, by exercise of their personal influence,” a press release read.
The raids, which began at 6am, were carried on the houses of the nine touts. Inbuilt temperature controlled swimming pool, home theatres, high-end cars, including Audi and Mercedes, were found. The press note identified the raided persons as Raghu BN of Chamrajpet, Mohan of Manorayanpalya in RT Nagar, Manoj of Domlur, Munirathna alias Rathnavelu of Kenagunte, Teju alias Tejaswi of RR Nagar, Ashwath from near KG Circle in Muddinapalya, Rama of Chamundeshwarinagara, Laxmana of Chamundeshwari Nagar and Chikkahanummaiah of Muddinapalya. Monday’s raids were a sequel to the ones carried out at the BDA head office at Kumara Park in November when many documents were seized and believed to be part of a Rs 100 crore scam. ACB had come across irregularities in documents relating to Kempegowda Layout, Arkavathy Layout and Vishweshwaraiah Layout.
Recently, a computer operator in BDA head office and his associates had extorted Rs 10 lakh from three BDA engineers, saying they were on the ACB radar. The money was collected on the assurance to remove their names from the ACB files. The engineers later realised they had been cheated. The operator and three friends were held last week.
