The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday conducted raids against 18 government officials in the State who are under the scanner for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. A team of around 100 ACB officials with 300 staff members turned up at 75 locations in ten districts, including in Bengaluru, Raichur and Gadag, to search the residences and offices of the officials.
ACB officials have seized property, gold, vehicles, cash, documents and other valuable items for further evaluation. Among the items seized were a note-counting machine and 3.17 kg of sandalwood from Badami range forest officer Shivananda Khedagi in the district headquarters town of Bagalkot.
During the raids conducted at the residences and offices of C. Manjunath, KAS, Assistant Commissioner, Ramanagaram, district, the ACB found that he owned seven badminton courts in Byatarayanapura in Yelahanka.
In Bengaluru, the premises of J. Gnanendra Kumar, Additional Commissioner, Karnataka Road Safety Authority; Rakesh Kumar, Bangalore Development Authority, Town Planning; and B.K. Shivakumar, Additional Director, Industries and commerce, were searched.
The ACB in a press release late Wednesday evening said that B.K. Shivakumar’s assets include two houses in Basaveshwara Nagar, two BDA sites at Anjanapura and Kengeri, a four-storeyed commercial complex in Amruthalli, 2.7 kg of gold valuables , seven kilos of silver articles, ₹19.5 lakh worth bank deposits , ₹17.9 lakh worth household articles as well as cars and two-wheelers.
J. Gnanendra Kumar, too, owned two houses in Basaveshwaranagar, as well as houses and property in B.M. Kavaluand Mysuru, a commercial shop at Esteem Mall in Hebbal, an apartment in Kogilu in Bengaluru, 9.9 acres of agricultural land in Chitradurga and other assets.
Other officers whose houses and offices were raided are: Ramesh Kankatte, RFO, Yadgir district; Basavaraj Shekar Reddy Patil, Executive Engineer, Gokak; Basava Kumar S. Annigeri, registrar in DC office, Gadag; Gopinath Malagi, project manager, Nirmiti Kendra, Vijayapura; Srinivas, General Manager, Social Welfare Department; Maheshwarappa, District Environmental Officer, Davangere; Krishnan A.E., Agricultural Produce & Livestock Market Committee in Haveri; Chaluvaraj, Excise Inspector, Gundlupet taluk; Girish, Assistant Engineer, National Highway sub-division; Balakrishna H.N., Inspector, Vijayanagara Police Station, Mysuru; Gavirangappa, Public Works Department, Chikkamagaluru; Ashok Reddy Patil, AEE, Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Ltd., Devadurga, Raichur; and Daya Sunder Raju, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation, Dakshina Kannada.
Searches on properties owned by other officials and their relatives will continue along with the seizure and evaluation procedures, said an ACB official.
