Lokayukta police to probe scam in works at DG&IGP office

 Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi has directed the Lokayukta police to investigate the misappropriation of funds in the works at the office of the State Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) on Nrupathunga Road in the City. Justice Adi ordered investigation based on the report submitted by the chief engineer of the Lokayukta on the irregularities.

The Lokayukta chief engineer had found misappropriation of funds to the tune Rs 32 lakh in nine of the 18 civil works.

The report also held executive engineer Venugopal, assistant engineer D K Puttaswamy and assistant executive engineer Anand responsible for splitting a single work of constructing parking lots into nine different works to avoid the Transparency Act and for releasing the money before the commencement of the works.

“The chief engineer of the Public Works Department was summoned and his explanation was sought. He said that the executive engineer had taken all the decisions and released the money. Since the chief engineer said that he was bypassed while taking the decision to release the money before the completion of the work, the matter will have to be thoroughly investigated,” Justice Adi said.

Inquiry ongoing

The report of the Lokayukta chief engineer said that out of the funds misappropriated in the nine works, the liability for Rs 8 lakh was on Venugopal, Rs 12 lakh on Puttaswamy and Rs 12 lakh on Anand. A senior official said that the inquiry into the remaining nine works, at other places in the City, was going on and the case had been handed over to the Lokayukta police.

T J Abraham had filed a complaint stating that with an intention to get the amount released from the budgetary allocation made for the year 2014-2015 before March 31, fake tender works were shown and a huge amount was misappropriated.

The work orders were issued on March 23 and a total of Rs 73 lakh was released before March 31. Inquiry revealed that 15 works were granted to Puttaswamy’s brother-in-law N H Anil Kumar. The inquiry found that fake estimation, work completed records and ‘MB book’ entries were created to raise the bills.