Official booked for cheating govt of Rs 539 crore

The Rural Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation (RDWSS) Department has registered a complaint against one of its gazetted managers and others for cheating the government of Rs 539 crore meant for implementing rural drinking water supply projects.

Krishnappa B, deputy director of RDWSS department, has lodged the complaint against Gazetted Manager B S Rayageri and others at the Halasuru Gate police station.

Money laundering
The complaint accuses Rayageri and others of depositing the money in two different accounts of Syndicate Bank, BWSSB branch — Rs 495 crore in one account and Rs 44.17 crore in another. The money was deposited without being brought to the notice of the authorities concerned, the police said, quoting the complaint. A senior police officer said, “The case has been taken up under sections 408, 415, 420 and 464 of the IPC. We will question the people named in the complaint and scrutinise the accounts in which they deposited the money. We will summon Rayageri for questioning.”

The suspects will be arrested only after a through investigation is carried out, he added. The government has suspended Rayageri. Earlier, it had suspended Ramakrishna, Additional Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR), on the charge of unauthorised parking of funds.

But the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) quashed the suspension order and the government recently reinstated him. A three-member committee under IPS officer Punati Sridhar, formed by the government to dig out unauthorised parking of funds, found a whopping Rs 1,335.89 crore in 1,128 bank accounts. The panel recently submitted its final report to the government. Later, the government came across another Rs 539 crore parked in 101 bank accounts.

Police: The case has been taken up under Sections 408, 415, 420 and 464 of the IPC. We will question the people named in the complaint and scrutinise the accounts in which they deposited the money. We will summon Rayageri for questioning