Valmiki scam: ED raids former minister Nagendra's residences in Bengaluru, Ballari

Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Wednesday morning raided the houses of former Scheduled Tribe Welfare minister B Nagendra and Congress MLA Basanagouda Daddal.

The raid came a day after both politicians appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged multi-crore scam at the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation for questioning.

The ED officials visited Nagendra's house in Sadashivanagar, along with the Central Reserve Police Force. Reports suggest that the ED raided over five places in Bengaluru, including residences in New BEL Road and Yelahanka.

Elsewhere, officials also raided Nagendra's residence in Ballari, taking the MLAs personal assistants - Vijaykumar and Chetan - into custody.

Nagendra's personal assistant (PA) Harish was taken into custody by the central agency.

Three teams of the Enforcement Directorate arrived at Ballari along with the CRPF security personnel without informing local police officials, but law enforcement there made adequate security arrangements surrounding the MLA's house as a precautionary measure.

The alleged scam at the corporation came to light after its accounts superintendent, Chandrashekhar, died by suicide on May 26 at his residence in Shivamogga. The deceased left behind a note naming a few corporation officials and also mentioned the word “minister.”

Following this, the Karnataka government constituted an SIT to probe the alleged scam. Even as the SIT was probing the scam, Suresh NR, president of the Anti-Corruption Forum, filed a complaint with ED and requested a probe into the scam.

Nagendra resigned from Siddaramaiah’s cabinet after the scam hit the headlines.