Ex-Karnataka minister B Nagendra taken into ED custody in money laundering probe
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) took former Karnataka minister and Congress leader B Nagendra into custody in connection with the Valmiki Corporation scam case.
The Congress MLA was taken to the ED office in Bengaluru from his residence for questioning, reported PTI quoting people aware of the development.
“I’m being brought from my home…I don’t know anything,” Nagendra told reporters as he was being taken to the ED office.
This development follows days after the ED conducted extensive searches at the former minister’s premises as part of a money laundering probe linked to the alleged scam, which came to light following the death of Chandrasekharan P, the accounts superintendent of the Corporation, on May 21.
A purported suicide note left by Chandrasekharan accused several officials of orchestrating illegal money transfers from the Corporation’s accounts to various other bank accounts.
Subsequently, two officials were suspended, while B Nagendra, who was Scheduled Tribes Welfare Minister, resigned from his ministerial post on June 6 under mounting pressure.
The Congress government then formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter, which has since resulted in the arrest of 11 individuals connected to the case.
Chandrasekharan’s suicide note alleged the unauthorised transfer of ₹187 crore from the state-run Corporation’s bank account. ₹88.62 crore was reportedly funnelled illegally into the accounts of several IT companies and a Hyderabad-based cooperative bank.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is also probing it simultaneously based on a complaint by the Union Bank of India.
“We welcome ED raids on Nagendra and Daddal,” State BJP chief B Y Vijayendra said on Wednesday.
“This is probably a big scam unheard of in the state’s history. The money that was kept for ST communities has been misused by siphoning off to other states for the elections there and for the Lok Sabha polls,” he alleged.
Senior BJP leader B Sriramulu on Thursday alleged that the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation scamsters honey-trapped government and bank officials to misappropriate money. The former minister claimed that high-end luxury cars were purchased with the money meant for the welfare of tribal people. The money was laundered and used in different elections, including the Lok Sabha election, he further claimed.
A stormy monsoon session of the Karnataka assembly is on the cards as the BJP plans to lay siege to Vidhana Soudha to protest against the policies of the Congress government.
“This is the government of scams — with MUDA scam, Valmiki corporation scam, SCSP TSP scam, Labour department scam — this government has a chain of scams to its credit. This is a zero development government,” state BJP General Secretary Sunil Kumar said.