Karnataka Lokayukta conducted day-long raids on the headquarters of Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), over allegations of widespread corruption and maladministration on Friday. When last checked, the raids were yet to conclude and are expected to continue on Saturday.
In a rare move, Lokayukta Justice B.S. Patil himself visited the BDA office during the raids. Seeing a large crowd of people who had come to the BDA headquarters seeking redressal of several issues, he organised a desk of Lokayukta officers who received their applications. Officials have received over 25 complaints. “All these applications will be treated as complaints and will be looked into in detail,” a senior police officer said. Significantly, the raids follow a suo motu case against BDA under Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984, under which not just charges of corruption but even maladministration can be probed into.
“The searches at the BDA office will help us look into several issues, including alleged corruption. A team of 35 officers are leading the search. We have made a list of certain issues that need to be probed based on complaints we have received and our source information. We will also look into delay in public services and maladministration,” Justice Patil said. Sources said Lokayukta Police seized a large cache of incriminating documents during the raid.
“Recently, an internal report in BDA exposed several irregularities in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout where civic amenity sites and land marked for commercial properties were illegally converted into residential sites. There have been several complaints lodged with us regarding allotment of alternate sites, delay in compensation and widespread corruption in all these processes. We have also got a case where BDA officials have given compensation to gomala land based on forged RTCs. Lokayukta Justice Patil ordered registering a suo motu case to probe all these issues,” said a senior Lokayukta official.
The case and the raids also follow similar all-encompassing raids on BDA headquarters by the then Anti-Corruption Bureau in 2021. The ACB case has also been transferred to Lokayukta and the latest raids will only aid the police in the investigations into the 2021 case, sources said.
