BMTF to seek clarification from Palike commissioner

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner M Lakshminarayana may have to give a clarification or two in connection with the irregularities to the tune of Rs 49 crore that has surfaced in the civic body.

A day after the arrest of Palike employee Sanjeev Murthy, there were reports that the probing agency Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) would quiz Lakshminarayana too. When contacted, Additional Director General of Police (BMTF) T Suneel Kumar said he would seek certain clarifications from the commissioner.

“We won’t say we are going to quiz him, but there are certain things which the BBMP commissioner needs to clarify. We want some information from him in this case,” Kumar said.

The case pertains to three Palike officers including the Chief Accounts Officer Veeranna Gowda Patil and Sanjeev Murthy, who are accused of drawing Rs 49 crore from the Palike account by forging the commissioner's signature and copying file notes of different civil works.

Meanwhile, there are talks in the power corridors that there could be a change of guard in the BBMP, following the unearthing of the Rs 49-crore scam. A series of scams have come to light in the recent past in the Palike, including the ‘Munirathna file-gate’ pertaining to about Rs 160 crore.