Valmiki Scam: ED searches premises of Congress MP, 3 MLAs in Ballari, Bengaluru; CM says he's okay if they are lawful
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said the state government would not come in the way of lawful search operations by the
Enforcement Directorate
(ED) after the agency conducted search on the premises owned by a
Congress MP
and three
Congress
MLAs in connection with the
diversion of funds
from Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation.
'We will not support any violation of law. We will not come in the way of the implementation of the law. We won't obstruct it," the CM said speaking to the media in Chikkaballapur district, near Bengaluru.
The ED on Wednesday conducted search at five places in Bellary and three in Bengaluru including the residential premises of MLAs Nara Bharath Reddy (Ballari City), JN Ganesh (Kampli), and NT Srinivas (Kudligi) and Ballari Congress MP E Tukaram in the case related to the alleged diversion of funds from the said ST Development Corporation.
A group of people allegedly committed fraud on the
Union Bank of India
(UBI) and siphoned off the funds, allocated to the Valmiki Corporation for the welfare of scheduled tribe members, between February 21 and May 6 this year. The alleged fraud came to light only on May 24, after the corporation managing director wrote to UBI's MG Road branch asking it to restore the funds debited to its account as it had not authorized any of the transactions that took place over this period.
The ED, which has taken up a case under the Prevention of
Money Laundering
Act (PMLA), 2002, is looking into the alleged widespread use of that money to bribe voters in the Lok Sabha polls, last year.
In its complaint to the CBI, the UBI said it had been able to recover Rs 5 crore while Rs 84.63 crore remained unrecovered from the recipients of funds from illegal transfers.
The state's tribal welfare and sports minister B Nagendra resigned in June last year over the scandal.
In May last year, P Chandrashekar, an accounts superintendent at the corporation, ended his life leaving a suicide note accusing his higherups of pushing him to open parallel bank account for diversion of funds from the corporation's primary account. The note revealed the unauthorised transfer of funds and named the corporation's MD, accounts officer and the bank's chief manager for the fraud, while alleging that it was done under the verbal orders of the minister.
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