Keys played hide-and-seek with ACB sleuths

One clue leading to another helped Anti-Corruption Bureau officials unearth assets during Friday’s raids on two government officials. A day after the raids, ACB officials on Saturday are said to have seized 25.5 kg of gold and Rs 5.29 crore cash from N G Gowdaiah, BDA engineer and T R Swamy, chief development officer at KIADB.

“Late in the evening, we found more than 18 kg of gold at Gowdaiah’s place,’’ a senior ACB official told DH.

Hidden at in-laws’ house

When ACB sleuths searched the house of Gowdaiah in Basaveshwaranagar, one of the officials stumbled upon a set of keys that did not match with any of the lockers in the house. A team of ACB officials that went to search the house of Gowdaiah’s father-in-law in Jayanagar called up, saying they were not finding keys for a safe locker there.

“The key was sent to Jayanagar. Around 23 gold biscuits and gold jewellery were seized from the locker. Gowdaiah’s mother-in-law said her daughter and son-in-law used the locker,’’ an official said.

One of the ACB officials found an oil filter of a high-end BMW car in the Basaveshwaranagar house. However, there was no trace of the car near the house.

“It is a three-storey building and every room has safe lockers. We had information that he owned high-end cars. Finally, the BMW car key was traced and after a thorough search, the car was found parked three crosses away from the house, near a park,’’ the official said.

It has come to light that Gowdaiah possessed 18 kg of gold and Rs 77 lakh. The officer also had hoarded high-end wrist watches. The sleuths have seized around 15 watches.

“There were 80 sets of bangles, a diamond necklace and gold biscuits. Five gold biscuits were seized from Gowdaiah’s Basaveshwaranagar house and 23 from his father-in-law’s house,’’ an official said. IGP (ACB) N Chandrashekhar said they received more than 500 calls giving information about the two officials. Public have been asked to call 1064, 080-22342100, 9480806300, facebook page – anticorruptionbureau.karnataka2016 and on twitter - @acbkarnataka.