‘Alerted Centre much before Narang blew the whistle’

BANGALORE, 04/06/2007: M.N. Vijayakumar, IAS, Principal Secretary, C&I Department, Government of Karnataka, MD, Mysore Lamps Works Ltd., who was not allowed to conduct the board meeting called by him inside Mysore Lamps Works Ltd., holding the meeting on the footpath outside the company, in Bangalore, on June 04, 2007. Photo: K. Gopinathan

Retired IAS officer M.N. Vijayakumar claims to have alerted the Centre about the alleged corruption in Karnataka Lokayukta much before IPS officer Sonia Narang blew the whistle.

Mr. Vijayakumar, who was handed over compulsory retirement just three days before completion of his service for allegedly speaking against the State bureaucracy, said on Tuesday that he had complained to L.C. Goyal, Secretary, Union Ministry of Home Affairs, about “Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao allowing the institution of Lokayukta to be taken over by the corrupt IAS mafia.”

Accusing Mr. Rao of succumbing to pressure from the State bureaucracy, Mr. Vijayakumar alleged that the Lokayukta had been blackmailed by the “corrupt” IAS mafia, after successfully involving his son in their corrupt activities. “This was why Mr. Rao refused to act on my letters, exposing corrupt IAS officers, when I was in service,” he alleged.