Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department, investigating the alleged irregularities in awarding tenders worth ₹39.38 crore in the Minor Irrigation Department in Koppal district, on Saturday conducted raids on the residences of seven department officials.
The officials have been accused of creating 3,938 fake bills, pertaining to 172 piecework contracts for dredging and various construction work, and transferring money — less than ₹1 lakh at a time — to the bank accounts of various contractors.
This was allegedly done to avoid penalty under the Transparency Act as any work worth above ₹1 lakh has to be tendered.
The officials have been identified as Premanand Kumar, executive engineer; H.D. Jhadhav, technical assistant; B. Shivakumar, assistant executive engineer; S. Manohar, assistant executive engineer; M.H. Pawar, assistant executive engineer, and Chandrashekhar S. Kalburgi, first-division assistant in the Minor Irrigation Department in Kushtagi division.
The case of alleged irregularities was first registered in Kushtagi police station in November 2016. Considering the magnitude of the case, the government later referred it to the CID.
Inquiries so far have revealed that no work took place in the designated places and the officials allegedly created 154 fake bills to pocket the amount. After a detailed probe, several teams from CID conducted simultaneous raids on the houses of officials in Mysuru, Kolar, Vijayapura, Ballari, Davangere, and Kushtagi, and recovered documents pertaining to movable and immovable properties worth several lakhs.
CID officials said many officials in the Minor Irrigation Department, along with contractors, were involved in the scam.
