Lokayukta raids unearth Rs 45.14 cr disproportionate assets held by 11 govt officers in Karnataka
Bengaluru, Jul 11: Lokayukta sleuths on Thursday conducted raids at 56 places across the state and found that 11 government officers and engineers had amassed assets worth Rs 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.
ALSO READ: Lokayukta sleuths raid govt officers and engineers in disproportionate assets case in Karnataka
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 D H Umesh, Assistant Executive Engineer at BESCOM Vigilance Police Station in Davangere M S Prabhakar, Belagavi Nirmiti Kendra Project Director Shekhar Gouda Kuradgi, Retired PWD Chief Engineer M Ravindra, and PWD Chief Engineer K G 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 Rs 7.88 crore -- among those raided on Thursday.
Officers found having DA of above Rs five crore are Umesh, Ravindra, K G Jagadeesh and Shivaraju, it added.
In all, the 11 officers were found to be in possession of Rs 45.14 crore worth DA, the statement said.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
