ACB ‘drains’ lakhs of rupees from pipes in K’buragi house

ACB ‘drains’ lakhs of rupees from pipes in K’buragi house

₹54L Cash Seized During Raids On Junior Govt Officer In K’taka

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:25.11.2021

Lakhs of rupees meant for laying public roads had not gone down the drain as it usually does. Instead, it had been hidden away in a drainage pipe of a junior government official’s house in north Karnataka. That is precisely what Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths found during the raid on a three-storey residence of Shanthagouda M Biradar, a junior engineer in the state public works department, in Kalaburagi on Wednesday morning.

The sleuths had to collect wads of currency notes, totaling ₹13.5 lakh, in a bucket after cutting open the drainage pipe where the illegal money had been stored. The engineer had also concealed currency notes in the false ceiling of the house, ACB sources said. The cash seized from the pipe and ceiling added to ₹54.5 lakh.

Not just cash, Biradar reportedly owned two houses in Kalaburagi, a site in Bengaluru, five vehicles, 36 acres of farmland and gold jewellery. “This is for the first time that we found cash hidden in a drainage pipe,” a senior ACB official said.

Besides Biradar, 14 other government officials were searched at 68 places across the state. A total of 503 ACB personnel swooped down on the residences of government officials, who are suspected to possess assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. The ACB raids come in the backdrop of an increase in complaints from ordinary people over rising corruption levels in the state.

At the end of the raids on the 15 officials, the ACB seized 16.5kg gold, 45kg silver, documents on sites and hundreds of acres of farmland reportedly amassed by the officials. A joint director of agriculture department in Gadag district, TS Rudreshappa, was found to be in possession of 9kg gold (including biscuits), 3kg silver and ₹16 lakh in cash, apart from owning houses and sites.

Five of the raided officials were from Bengaluru. The agency found ₹43 lakh cash from the house of KAS officer LC Nagaraj, who came under the radar after being booked by the CBI in the IMA scam. Nagaraj is serving as an administrative officer in Sakala Mission. ACB sleuths said he owned 11.3 acres in Nelamangala and 1.8kg gold jewelry.

What baffled the ACB officials was the king-size life led by GV Giri, a group ‘D’ worker and driver with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. ACB officials said he owned six houses in Bengaluru and four cars, apart from gold jewellery.

DOWN THE DRAIN: Wads of ₹500 notes collected from a drainage pipe during a raid in Kalaburagi on Wednesday. (R) Gold biscuits & jewels among the 9kg gold seized from a government official’s home