A special court has directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to conduct an inquiry against three former Principal Secretaries of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department and three others to ascertain the allegations that they had caused a loss of ₹269 crore to the exchequer by misappropriating public funds during 2009-15.
The inquiry has been ordered against former Principal Secretaries, retired IAS officers Amita Prasad and T.M. Vijaya Bhaskar (also a former Chief Secretary), serving IAS officer E.V. Ramana Reddy, a retired IAS officer and the then Additional Secretary of RDPR Department Bore Gowda, the then Deputy Secretary Ramakrishna, and Ceelam Giri, the then Assistant General Manager (AGM) of Syndicate Bank (now Canara Bank).
The 23 Additional City Civil and Sessions Court (special court for cases under Prevention of Corruption Act), Bengaluru, passed the order on a private complaint filed by 55-year-old S. Narayanaswamy, a social worker from Kolar district.
No action
He had filed the complaint before the court as the ACB did not act on his complaint filed in 2019 against the officers for their alleged misconduct and abuse of power when they were holding respective posts in the RDPR Department.
Lakshminaraya Bhat K., the judge of the special court in his April 18 order, has directed that an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of ACB Bengaluru Urban district should conduct the inquiry/investigation and submit the report to the court within four months.
Pointing out that it is not possible for the court to arrive at any conclusion to proceed either under Section 203 or under Section 204 of the Cr.PC in the absence of an investigation/inquiry by the police officer, the court said that in order to ascertain the involvement of the accused in the alleged offence a direction for an inquiry/investigation under Section 202(1) of the Cr.PC is necessary.
The complainant has made specific allegations against the accused officers that from 2010-10 to 2014-15, they had committed the offence of misappropriation of the public fund to the extent of ₹3,405.21 crore and this aspect had come to light in an audit report.
It was also alleged that the accused officers, contrary to the Memorandum of Understanding, had opened six bank accounts, the then AGM had in all opened 98 accounts contrary to the rules, and the accused officers of the RDPR Department had failed to deposit the excess amount in fixed deposits and thereby caused a loss of ₹269 crore to the exchequer.
Different accounts
Both in the audit report and the deposition before the court, an officer of the Karnataka State Audit and Accounts Department had stated that he had noticed that ₹10,179.80 crore has been transferred and re-transferred from different bank accounts and the accused officers had failed to forward any explanation regarding the transfer of funds from one bank account to another.
The police under Section 202(1) are having limited power for investigation without registration of the case and arrest of the accused. The police under Section 202(1) of the Cr.PC are required to file report of inquiry whether there is a prima facie case made out against the accused, the court noted in its order.
