BENGALURU: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was conducting raids at locations linked to four Congress leaders and others in connection with the Maharshi Valmiki Tribal Welfare Board Scam in Ballary district and Bengaluru on Wednesday.
A team of 60 officers attached to the ED has been conducting simultaneous raids in eight locations, five in Ballary and three in Bengaluru city, since early this morning, sources stated.
According to ED sources, raids are currently underway at the residences and offices of Congress Ballary MP E. Tukaram and Congress MLAs Na. Ra. Bharath Reddy, J.N. Ganesh aka Kampli Ganesh and N. T. Srinivas.
Sources further stated that raids are also being conducted at the Bengaluru office of former Minister and Congress MLA Nagendra.
The residence of Govardhan, the personal assistant of Ballary Congress MLA and former Minister B. Nagendra, is also being raided.
The raids are being conducted in connection with misusing the funds allotted to the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Limited (KMVSTDCL) for the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Karnataka. It is also alleged that the funds were utilised for the Congress candidates in the last Telangana Assembly election.
The sleuths are conducting a search operation at the room belonging to the former Minister and Ballary Rural MLA Nagendra in the premises of the Legislators' House located close to Vidhana Soudha.
Official confirmation was awaited.
Reacting to the ED raids, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stated in Chikkaballapura, "Let the action be initiated against whoever is guilty. I will not support the guilty in this regard. The probe is conducted and let the truth come out, " he stated.
Basavaraj Rayareddy, the Economic Advisor of CM Siddaramaiah, reacted in Delhi, saying, "It is not correct to target only the Congress leaders. The probe is being conducted by the state government. The raids are conducted to instil fear among the Congress leaders and representatives of the people. The BJP is carrying out politics of hatred these days, he slammed.
Congress MLC B.K. Hariprasad slammed that there is nothing wrong in conducting a probe, the BJP has reduced the ED into its tool to tackle political opponents.
Sources stated that Congress Ballary city MLA Bharath Reddy was being questioned by the ED sleuths at his residence.
The residence of MLA Kampli Ganesh, located on the outskirts of Kampli town, was being raided.
Former Minister and MLA B. Nagendra was imprisoned in connection with the case earlier. He had to resign following the surfacing of the scam. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had stated that the matter of rejoining Nagendra would be reviewed.
Nagendra, former minister for ST Welfare, Youth Empowerment and Sports, was arrested on July 12, 2024, by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a sensational tribal welfare scam. Later, he was sent to judicial custody and released on bail after spending three months in jail.
Nagendra, after his release from prison, had alleged that the ED had harassed him. He said the BJP was conspiring to destabilise the elected governments in the country.
The BJP has alleged Siddaramaiah’s role in the scam since he had “agreed” to the misappropriation of Rs 89.6 crore from the government body. The BJP is claiming that it is a scam involving Rs 187 crore, and as Siddaramaiah holds the finance portfolio, his involvement is evident.
The ED has named B. Nagendra the primary accused and mastermind in the alleged scam in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation.
"Nagendra allegedly orchestrated the scam with the help of 24 others, including key associates like Satyanarayana Varma, Etakari Satyanarayana, J.G. Padmanabha, Nageshwar Rao, Nekkunti Nagaraj, and Vijay Kumar Gowda, ” the ED said in a statement.
However, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Congress government had given Nagendra a clean chit in the scam and had not mentioned his name in the charge sheet.
The agency initiated the investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by the Karnataka Police and CBI, which uncovered that around Rs 89.62 crore was diverted from the Corporation’s accounts into fake accounts across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and later laundered through shell entities.
The case of the suicide of Accounts Superintendent P. Chandrasekaran (52), attached to the tribal welfare board, had brought to light the alleged multi-crore Tribal Welfare Board case. In the suicide note, the officer had stated about the scam and attempts to hush up the matter and extreme pressure on him by politicians and senior officers.
The 300-page charge sheet by the special wing of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which comes under the state government, does not mention the names of politicians from the ruling Congress. Chandrasekaran’s death note, however, indicated the involvement of a minister from the Congress government in the Tribal Welfare case and held him responsible for his death.