Satyanarayana Varma, a 36-year-old prominent suspect in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Ltd scam, paid Rs 3.3 crore to a Hyderabad car dealer for a used Lamborghini. However, this was not his own money and was actually a portion of the fund allocated for the development of the state’s Scheduled Tribes. But the high-end purchase didn’t last long as police uncovered the transaction, seized the car, gave it back to the dealer and collected the amount from him in a matter of days after pursuing the money trail.
As per reports he was nabbed on 13th June by the special investigation team (SIT) in Hyderabad. Police confiscated Rs. 8.2 crore belonging to the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation Ltd.
An SIT of the state police headed by the director general of police of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was recently established by the Karnataka government to look into the theft of Rs 94 crore from a scheduled tribes development corporation bank account. The action was taken in response to demands raised by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the scandal. Union Bank of India officials reportedly wrote to the agency requesting that it should delve into the bank’s mismanagement of funds.
The anomalies were discovered following the suicide on 26th May of P Chandrashekaran, a development corporation employee involved in fund auditing, who claimed fraud in the use of money in a six-page death note. A managing director of the company filed a complaint in Bengaluru, alleging six Union Bank of India executives were involved in the scandal, concurrently with an unnatural death report submitted in the Shivamogga area. A case has been filed by the police under various sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to criminal forgery, cheating and breach of trust.
The SIT has been established to inquire into the official’s death and the fraud. Manish Kharbikar, a senior IPS officer and the CID’s additional director general of police for economic offences will serve as its head. The squad also includes Raghavendra Hegade, superintendent of police (CID), Hariram Shankar, superintendent of police (state intelligence), and Shivprakash Devaraju, deputy commissioner of police (traffic). According to the government decision, the SIT would investigate all incidents involving financial embezzlement at the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes’ Development Corporation.
The order read, “The Special Investigation Team shall carry out a comprehensive investigation of the cases and financial affairs and other related affairs of the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Development Corporation, and submit the investigation report to the Government through the Director General and Inspector General of Defense.”
Two company personnel, Parashuram G. Durugannavar, the accounts officer and former MD JJ Padmanabh have already been placed under SIT custody. Nine bogus accounts that were also opened on the same day as the theft of Rs 94.73 crore of government money have been linked to the theft, according to the initial probe into the matter. The funds were moved to Hyderabad-based Ratnakar Bank Limited (RBL) accounts. Former Youth Affairs, Sports, and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Minister B Nagendra was apprehended by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for an interrogation case. The BJP has vowed to start a protest from 6th June if the government does not remove him from the cabinet.
