Rs 5 crore cash, 4 kg gold seized in raid on officials

In its biggest seizure, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday recovered Rs 5.25 crore in cash, around 4.5 kg gold and 10 kg of silver from two government officials.

The officials — S G Gowdaiah, engineer (Officer-5) of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), and T R Swamy, chief development officer
of Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) — were raided for assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

ACB officials searched eight premises belonging to both the officials.

One of the officials raided, Swamy, threw two bags, one suitcase and another cloth bag, from the window of his 14th floor apartment. The ACB sleuths recovered the suitcase, containing cash, and the cloth bag with documents and Rs 10 lakh in cash.

At the end of the searches on Friday, Swamy turned out to be the biggest catch for the ACB with Rs 4.52 crore in cash, documents pertaining to eight houses, 10 sites and 10 acres of land.

This apart, ACB officials seized 1.6 kg of gold and three cars. Swamy is a senior official in the KIADB and handled allotment of land for several projects.

The ACB team that raided the flat (C-1405) on the 14th floor of Mantri Greens, had to wait for some time since Swamy refused to open the door. Swamy was busy bundling his riches into the bags, which he threw out of the window. The officials simultaneously raided Swamy’s sister’s house (flat number 1504), on the 15th floor of the same building around 5 am.

An official told DH that the suitcase was recovered immediately since it fell on the ground with a thud. After throwing the suitcase, Swamy had called an autorickshaw driver to pick up the suitcase. However, the ACB officials reached the ground floor immediately and sized the suitcase. The suitcase contained cash exceeding Rs 3.5 crore. A little later, the cloth bag, which was stuck between electric pipes just above the ground, was also seized. “The searches are on and some lockers and bank accounts still need to be verified. We will also probe the source of cash,’’ a senior official said.

In the other raid, ACB sleuths seized Rs 75 lakh in cash from Gowdaiah, engineer (Officer-5). Gowdaiah, who is the officer in charge of housing projects in BDA, owns either in his name or in the name of his relatives, 14 apartments, two houses and eight sites. Besides, ACB officials seized 3 kg of gold, 10 kg of silver, deposits worth Rs 30 lakh and 4.5 kg of gold from his father-in-law’s house.