Keys played hide-and-seek with ACB raid party

One clue leading to another helped Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials unearth assets during Friday’s raids on two government officials. A day after the raids, ACB officials on Saturday are said to have seized 25.5 kg of gold and Rs 5.29 crore cash from N G Gowdaiah, BDA engineer and T R Swamy, chief development officer at KIADB.

“Late in the evening, we found more than 18 kg of gold at Gowdaiah’s place,’’ a senior official told DH.

Hidden at in-laws’ house

When ACB sleuths searched the house of Gowdaiah in Basaveshwaranagar, one of the officials stumbled upon a set of keys that did not match with any of the lockers in the house. A team of ACB officials that went to search the house of Gowdaiah’s father-in-law in Jayanagar called up, saying they were not finding keys for a safe locker there.

“The key was sent to Jayanagar. Around 23 gold biscuits and gold jewellery were recovered from the locker there. Gowdaiah’s mother-in-law said her daughter and son-in-law used the locker exclusively,’’ an official said.

One of the ACB officials found an oil filter of a high-end BMW car in the Basaveshwaranagar house. However, there was no trace of the car near the house.

“It is a three-storey building and every room has safe lockers. We had information that he owned high-end cars. Finally, the BMW car key was traced and after a thorough search, the car was found parked three crosses away from the house, near a park,’’ the official said.

It has come to light that Gowdaiah possessed 18 kg of gold and Rs 77 lakh. The officer also has a collection of high-end wrist watches. The sleuths have seized around 15 watches.

“There were 80 set of bangles, a diamond necklace and gold biscuits. Five gold biscuits were seized from Gowdaiah’s Basaveshwaranagar house and 23 from his father-in-law’s house,’’ an official said. Inspector General of Police (ACB) N Chandrashekhar said they received more than 500 calls giving information about the two officials raided on Friday.

Chandrashekhar has requested the public to pass on information through the ACB helpline 1064, 080-22342100, 9480806300, facebook page – anticorruptionbureau.karnataka2016 and on twitter - @acbkarnataka.