ACB sleuths raid 4 govt officials, unearth assets worth crores

The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday stumbled upon gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 95 lakh, 33.28 litres of liquor, mostly foreign-made, $1,559 and 60 wrist watches from the house of H Nagesh, director of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL).

The official was raided by the ACB for assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The office and the house of Nagesh were part of the raids conducted by the ACB at several premises belonging to four government officials.

The three other officials raided are — Ramakrishna Reddy, superintendent at Directorate of Technical Education; N Raghumurthy, tahsildar Ramanagaram; and Dr K C Yatish Kumar, additional commissioner (East Zone) BBMP. A senior ACB official said the searches were conducted at the houses and offices of the four officials at Nagarabhavi, Koramangala and Byatarayanapura.

From the house of Nagesh in Koramangala, the ACB sleuths seized silver articles weighing 17.8 kg (Rs 6 lakh), 60 wrist watches (Rs 20 lakh) two cars, documents relating to agricultural land in Anekal taluk (Rs 21 lakh), sites in Tavarekere, Channasandra, Bommanahalli and HAL III Stage (Rs 34 lakh). The official also possessed industrial land and a shed at Bidadi (Rs 1.4 crore), another four-storeyed house at Srinivagilu near Begur (Rs 3.5 crore) and Rs 2.25 lakh in cash.

“We have seized 36 bottles of liquor most of which are foreign-made. We have informed the Excise Department officials since there is a cap on storing liquor bottles at home. The Excise Department officials will take further action in this regard. Apart from these, we have found 11 bank accounts in Bengaluru alone. The official had demonetised notes of Rs 1,000 denomination worth Rs 45,000,” an official said.

From the house of Ramakrishna Reddy, the officials seized documents pertaining to a house in Kempapura in Byatarayanapura (Rs 25 lakh), 349 gm gold, 2.71 kg of silver articles, Rs 1.27 lakh cash, another house in Byatarayanapura (Rs 40 lakh), a flat at RMV II Stage (Rs 40 lakh), five bank accounts and 45 keys to lockers.

The ACB sleuths found that the official owned, in benami names, three SUVs, including a BMW. The officials found Rs 20 lakh in cash in one of the cars.

The ACB officials raided the houses of Yatish Kumar, additional commissioner (East Zone) BBMP, at Nagarabhavi, his sister's house in Mysuru and seized documents pertaining to a four-storeyed house (Rs 1.25 crore), 1.07 kg of gold, two cars, a flat at BTM Layout (Rs 1.5 crore), four sites in Bettahalsur in Bengaluru and also in Mysuru.

From the house of Ramanagaram tahsildar N Raghumurthy at Nagarabhavi, ACB officials seized documents of a house in Nagarabhavi (Rs 2.5 crore), 11 bank accounts and Rs 2.17 crore in fixed deposits and a site in Mysuru.