Former BDA chief quizzed for two hours

Former commissioner of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) Jayaram Jerome, a retired IAS officer, was questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths on Monday in connection with the multi-crore mutual fund scam that has rocked the BDA.

Jerome was the BDA commissioner between 1999 and 2004 when the scam took place.  The scam involves transfer of around Rs 2,202 crore BDA funds to temporary bank accounts. The money was subsequently invested in mutual funds.

“We had summoned him to the CID office as he was heading the BDA when the scam took place. We wanted to ascertain if he had any role in the scam and obtain some other information,” a senior CID officer said.

Jerome was taken into a room soon after he arrived in the CID headquarters. He was questioned for more than two hours, the officer added, and said that the questioning would continue on Tuesday. The CID officers obtained Jerome’s statement on Monday.

Retired Joint Comptroller (State Accounts Department) and former financial member of the BDA, M N Sheshappa, Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) officer Sandeep Dash and suspended BDA cashier C Vasanth Kumar have already been arrested in the case.