It’s raining investigations in Karnataka, with the constitution of five special investigation teams (SIT) and a commission headed by a retired Judge this year after the new Congress government took over the helm in May.
It all began with the State government setting up a SIT to probe the Bitcoin scam that rocked Karnataka between 2020 and 2021 when the BJP government was ruling Karnataka. After allegations of the involvement of police officers and politicos in the scam surfaced when Congress was in Opposition, the party had promised to investigate the scam. In July, the SIT was formed.
The alleged 40% bribery for civic contracts was another major issue that was widely debated in 2021. The contractors went after the BJP government, which inadvertently helped the Congress during the Assembly elections. The new government formed four SITs and the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission in August to probe the allegations. These SITs headed by IAS officers conducted investigations into civic works executed under Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) between 2019-20 and 2022-23 for four months. This irked the contractors as the formation of SITs further stalled their payments which were pending for the past three years.
