Assets belonging to a Lokayukta police constable and seven other government officials were impounded during simultaneous raids conducted by the Hassan, Chikmagalur, Tumkur, Chickballapur and Mysore units of the Lokayukta police on Wednesday.
The impounded assets, which included vehicles, plots and buildings, are estimated to be worth Rs. 7.5 crore and are disproportionate to the officials’ known sources of income.
Lokayukta officials said here that the value of the assets such as plots and buildings were calculated on the basis of prevailing government rates. The Lokayukta police constable who was raided is Channabasavaiah. Attached to the Lokayukta police since 2006, Channbasavaiah was also the gunman for the former Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde.
His assets, which include seven residential plots, two residential buildings, 170 grams of gold, 2.4 kilos of silver, one four-wheeler and two motorbikes, are estimated at Rs. 73 lakh. He has also a sum of Rs. 1.24 lakh in cash. Addressing a press conference here, Lokayukta Additional Director-General of Police H.N.S. Rao said that investigation is on to ascertain if the assets owned by Channabasavaiah were purchased after he joined the Lokayukta police. Mr. Rao also said that the operation against the constable was conducted after receiving several complaints about his assets.
“We keep receiving complaints against officials in the Lokayukta. There are allegations that they throw their weight around in the name of the Lokayukta and extort money,” Mr. Rao said.
The others on the list are B. Guruprasad, Chief Engineer of the Karnataka Housing Board in Bangalore, whose assets were estimated at Rs. 2.36 crore; R. Gopal, Director of the Archaeology Department in Mysore with assets worth Rs. 2.53 crore; N. Nagaraju, Executive Engineer, Public Works, Chickballapur, with assets worth Rs. 1.57 crore; Vincent Rozario, Shirestedar at the Taluk office at Kadur in Chikmagalur, with assets worth Rs. 80 lakh; T.K. Lakshminarayana Reddy, Shirestedar at the Tumkur Taluk office, with assets worth Rs. 1.12 crore; and Keerthi Kumar, Secretary Agricultural Cooperative Service Society at Hassan, with assets worth Rs. 77 lakh.
