Lokayukta

Bhaskar Rao

inquiry

Justice Adi

corruption

UpaJustice Adi is expected to take on Lokayukta JusticeA direct confrontation is brewing in the office of Lokayukta. Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi is learnt to have not taken kindly to the dissolution by Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao of anordered by him into the alleged bribe cartel functioning within the premises of the Lokayukta office.On Friday, Justice Rao passed an order after a meeting held in chambers – attended by him and the other Upa Lokayukta, Justice S B Majage, and minus– that ‘‘the enquiry which was earlier handed over to Inspector General of Police (by Justice Rao himself for an internal inquiry soon after the scam was brought into public view on May 11 by Lokayukta SP Sonia Narang that someone in the anti-corruption body was on the take) is hereby immediately transferred to Chandrashekar, IPS, City Crime Branch…’’ He also said that ‘‘Brother Justice Subhash B Adi, Upalokayukta, has been contacted over phone and informed of the above decision’’. In the presser held by Justice Rao, he maintained that his son, Ashwin, was in no way involved in the bribery racket . Meanwhile, the Bar Council of Karnataka has demanded Justice Rao’s resignation.Justice Adi, sources close to him say, feels that he is well within his rights and powers vested in him in Lokayukta Act to order his own inquiry. He is expected to insist on, as earlier planned, his team of investigators led by Narang to submit a report by July 6. Justice Adi ordered his inquiry on June 23 asking Narang to conduct a ‘‘free and fair probe’’ after the Justice Rao-ordered internal inquiry seemed to be going nowhere.On its part, the Narang-led team, which was brought into being on Tuesday after Justice Adi’s order, seems to have made immense headway into the murky affair. Investigations so far by the team has hit upon two findings: One, at least 190 government officials have been blackmailed by the bribery cartel of insiders in the watchdog and rank outsiders for hefty sums each. In the last six months or so, it is alleged to have yielded around Rs 125 crore to the cartel. Two, the outsourced trio which was making the calls had used more than 60 mobile numbers/SIM cards and restricted meticulously each to a maximum of two to three targets.The cops have identified three (as reported by Bangalore Mirror earlier) who ran the racket from the premises of Lokayukta, as Krishna Rao a.k.a Narasimha Rao, Sadiq and Bhaskar. Krishna Rao was allegedly a facilitator of land deals in the offices of KIADB and BDA. Sadiq is a city-based tout and reportedly a distant relative of a senior police officer in Lokayukta. Bhaskar is a wheeler-dealer who had specialised in identifying high-value targets, basically the more corrupt officials.The investigators claimed to have zeroed in on the mobile numbers used by the three – Krishna Rao (7022XX6182), Sadiq (9560XX3040) and Bhaskar (8884XX6560). “The SIM card used by Rao was obtained in the name of Saleem, a resident of 4th Main 2nd Cross, Byrasandra in Jayanagar 1st Block. We are on the lookout for him to dig deeper into the case.”On the modus operandi of the accused, investigators said: “With the help of insiders in the Lokayukta they used to obtain in advance the state-tour schedule of Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao. Usually, the Lokayukta would go on a tour extending from four to seven days and his journey from Bengaluru would usually start on Sunday nights. Taking advantage of Lokayukta’s absence, the accused would start making calls to corrupt officials and summon the latter to the residence stating that they had to meet the Lokayukta. Later, they would threaten the officials and extort money. While senior bureaucrats have paid in crores the mid-level staff, especially those from the BBMP and PWD have paid amounts ranging from Rs 50-75 lakh each. We were told that Krishna Rao was used as the frontman to pressure officials into paying up to avoid any raid. We are investigating who the official behind the plan and who would reveal Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao’s tour plans is.”The police wing probing the case -- which was set off after Krishnamurthy, an executive engineer with Bengaluru urban, told Lokayukta SP Sonia Narang that Rs 1 crore was demanded from him to avoid a Lokayukta raid – have so far found over 60 mobile numbers that was used by the group to run its operations. Even if this probe team has to pack its bags, the information gathered so far has to be considered by the CCB investigators.The police wing has also questioned an IAS officer and a tahsildar in this regard. Most tahsildars in Bengaluru urban district ended up paying the trio in order to avoid raids. “Seven IAS officers paid between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 1 crore to the three. They did not use common numbers, but multiple numbers with fake credentials each time,” a source told Bangalore Mirror.Most senior officers in the city and across the state, mostly from revenue, transport and excise departments, and BBMP and the BDA have been victimised, sources added. Besides details of the IAS officers, police wing officials have accessed the details of the demand and payment to the syndicate by excise department officials in Belagavi district. Officers said the seizure of money from an officer at a toll near Chitradurga, recently, has been linked to the same scamsters.LOKAYUKTA JUSTICE Y Bhaskar Rao on Friday transferred an inhousecase to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) attached to Bangalore Police. He directed Joint Commissioner (crime) Chandrashekar to supervise the probe and submit a report as early as possible. The case was earlier registered with the inspector general of police (IGP), Lokayukta, on June 9. "I am transferring the probe pertaining to Rs 1 crore bribery demand to the CCB. I have taken this decision to keep the reputation of this great institution high. If a report indicts me or any member of my family, I will resign immediately,” Rao said while addressing a hurriedly convened press conference on Friday. Earlier, his son, Ashwin’s name had surfaced in connection with the case.“Chandrashekar should conduct the probe in the most free and fair manner and submit the report to the registrar of Lokayukta as early as possible. Meanwhile, all the probes ordered in this regard by Lokayukta and Upa Lokayukta stand transferred,” Rao added.However, sources told Bangalore Mirror that Chandrashekar was hesitant to take up the probe since a relative of his was being probed by the Lokayukta in a land denotification case and it would be impossible to conduct the probe impartially. Rao, meanwhile, ruled out a CBI inquiry stating that Lokayukta did not have power to order any probe by the central agency.To prevent the repeat of the extortion episode from within the Lokayukta premises, Rao has said a committee was being formed comprising the ADGP, IG, Sonia Narang and a registrar to decide on the mechanism to keep tab on visitors. Rao also said the CCTV and all other material pertaining to the probe would be handed over to CCB.