The curious case of an employee in a Minister’s office getting caught in the Vidhana Soudha while transporting unaccounted-for cash of ₹25.76 lakh appears to have brought trouble for Backward Classes Welfare Minister C. Puttaranga Shetty. According to sources, the Minister is likely to be questioned in the case.
S.J. Mohan Kumar, who worked in Mr. Shetty’s office, was caught by the Vidhana Soudha police on January 4. The case was subsequently transferred to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). In his statement to the ACB, Mr. Kumar is believed to have said that he had collected the money from representatives of multiple contractors and that it was meant for the Minister. The money was allegedly “kickback” in lieu for grants to build concrete roads in colonies where nomad tribes live in Kampli, Koppal, Tumakuru Rural, and Devanahalli.
“Mohan Kumar has claimed that he collected the money as kickback after discussing the issue with the Minister. But his statement is not enough for us to proceed against the Minister. We are now in the process of collecting corroborative evidence for his claims. The Minister’s questioning will be a call taken after examining the corroborative evidence we are able to collect,” said a senior officer.
The ACB probe is now in the process of establishing the identity of the middlemen and contractors who allegedly paid the bribe. “We have identified the projects in question and will recover the related files from the ministry. We will call the alleged middlemen and contractors for questioning soon,” another senior officer said. The sleuths are also trying to establish the details of the meetings between the contractors, their representatives and Mr. Kumar, and whether any of them had met the Minister.
Meanwhile, Mr. Shetty has denied any knowledge of the money collected and has disowned Mr. Kumar. He even attempted to get a gag order for the media to not report on the case, but his plea was turned down. But even as the Opposition BJP has been vocal in its demand for the Minister’s resignation, the Congress has come out in strongly in his defence, with top leaders such as Siddaramaiah, G. Parameshwara and Dinesh Gundu Rao arguing that there was no need for any action as the allegations have not been proved.
Mr. Shetty, an MLA from Chamarajanagar, is a Siddaramaiah acolyte. In fact, after being inducted into the Cabinet, he had even called Mr. Siddaramaiah his Chief Minister and consequently received flak for it.
Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy recently told mediapersons that there was no question of any cover-up if there was any wrongdoing. He sought time for the ACB probe to be completed before taking action against the Minister.
