JOIN USRs 15-cr scam unearthed in KSRTC housing society
The staff of road transport corporations who took loans and invested their life savings in the KSRTC Employees' Cooperative Housing Society (KECHS) are now staring at an uncertain future. Some former office-bearers, including the president and directors, are accused of swindling the housing society out of Rs 15 crore.
An investigation ordered by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies has detected several illegalities in the co-op.
The case dates back to 2006 when the KECHS's proposal to purchase 110 acres of land in Nelamangala, near Bengaluru, to create housing plots for its members was approved by the authorities. The co-op had nearly 5,000 members, of whom 910 from the BMTC and the KSRTC pooled Rs 39.32 crore to buy the plots.
The KECHS subsequently signed a tripartite agreement with the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) and Supreme Associates, a private company contracted to purchase the land and develop the Sarige Nagara township with all amenities.
Things took a different turn when KECHS office-bearers who took over in 2011 violated the tripartite agreement by releasing Rs 14.73 crore to the private company without bringing the matter to the KHB's notice. As a result, out of the proposed 110 acres, only 72 acres and 27 guntas were registered to the board.
Manjunath G A, a former president of the KECHS, is suspected to have transferred Rs 12.10 crore to his brother Lakshminarayan Gowda, who became a partner at Supreme Associates in 2011.
"After he (Lakshminarayana Gowda) became a partner, Rs 12.10 crore was paid. However, no work has been carried out on the land against the money. The KECHS office-bearers have transferred such a huge amount without taking any bank guarantee. The same has to be recovered from them," the deputy registrar of cooperative societies, N Venkatesh, the investigation officer, said in a report.
In a separate investigation, Wilson Garden police found that five acres and 12 guntas of the land belonging to the KECHS was registered in the name of Surendra, another partner at Supreme Associates, and his friends.
While the investigation by the deputy registrar focused on the violation of Section 68 of the Karnataka Cooperative Societies Act, 1959, police invoked IPC sections pertaining to conspiracy after taking the statement of 76 people.
Police have asked the housing society to take action against 16 people, including Manjunath, former vice-president S N Rajanna, former honorary secretary Purushotham, V K Puttaswamy, Shivanna and T L Arun Kumar.