Karnataka Lokayukta Raids Officers, Finds Assets Worth Rs 45 Crore

Bengaluru: Lokayukta sleuths on Thursday conducted raids at 56 places across the state and found that 11 government officers and engineers had amassed assets worth ₹ 45.14 crore that are disproportionate to their known sources of income, the office of the Lokayukta said.
In an early morning operation, about 100 officials carried out simultaneous raids in nine districts against government officers who allegedly accumulated disproportionate assets (DA).

The superintendents of the districts supervised the raids and carried out searches in 56 locations. The officers who were raided include Assistant Executive Engineer in Panchayat Raj Engineering Department in Belagavi, D Mahadev Bannur; Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited Executive Engineer DH Umesh; Assistant Executive Engineer at BESCOM Vigilance Police Station in Davangere, MS Prabhakar; Belagavi Nirmiti Kendra Project Director Shekhar Gouda Kuradgi; Retired PWD Chief Engineer M Ravindra; and PWD Chief Engineer KG Jagadeesh, a statement issued by the Lokayukta said.

The other officers are retired Executive Engineer of the Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Division Mandya, S Shivaraju; Harohalli Tahsildar in Ramanagara. Vijayanna; Superintending Engineer in Irrigation Department, Mahesh K; Panchayat secretary N M Jagadeesh; and Mahadevapura Revenue Officer Division of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, Basavaraj Magi.According to the Lokayukta office, Shekhar Gouda Kuradgi was found to be in possession of the highest amount of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income -- worth ₹ 7.88 crore -- among those raided on Thursday.

Officers found having DA above ₹ 5 crore are Umesh, Ravindra, KG Jagadeesh and Shivaraju, it added. In all, the 11 officers were found to be in possession of ₹ 45.14 crore worth DA, the statement said.

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