Lokayukta police raid office of Kannada and Culture dept

The Lokayukta police raided the office of the Commissioner for Kannada and Culture department here on Monday.

Additional Director General of Police, Lokayukta, H N Satyanarayana Rao, said that the raid was conducted on the basis of credible information that the staff was misusing government grants.

“We have seized five files in connection with the misappropriation of funds. After scrutinising the file contents, we will continue the investigation.”

Sources in the Lokayukta police said that the seized files showed that at least Rs one crore was misused by the Department.

“The Department has received around Rs 150 crore as grant over a period of time and we have evidence of large scale misuse. The few documents that we have seized leads us to believe that a lot of this money has been misused,” the sources said.

The sleuths recovered Rs 22,000 of cash unaccounted for and Rs 3,000 from two employees of the department office. They also found several medals meant to be given with Rajyotsava awards missing.

Embezzlers not punished

Documents seized by the police showed that the department had taken a very lenient view of misappropriation of funds. Files showed that people who had embezzled Rs three lakh to Rs four lakh were let off with just a warning by the Department officials.

In other instances, cash withdrawals were made even for paying large amounts when money was supposed to be given through cheque.

“We are seeing a lot of misappropriation especially in the last five to six years. Their financial documentation is very poor. Their transactions have all been conducted in an improper manner. We also found evidence that benami transactions had been made,” the source said.

Initial investigations by the police pointed out that genuine applicants for the grants were ignored, while fake associations were created, along with fake testimonies and paperwork, and funds were released to them.

Investigations are also being conducted into charges that commission was sought for releasing grants.

Officers transferred

The State government has transferred two IPS officers of 2009 batch, Shanthanu Sinha and Iada Martin Marbaniang, to the posts of Superintendent of Police of Lokayukta in Bangalore.