Rs 6 cr recovered from house of BJP MLA’s son; CM says trap proves BJP revived Lokayukta

PTI, Mar 3, 2023, 11:44 AM IST

Image courtesy: NDTV

Bengaluru: The Lokayukta police have recovered Rs six crore cash from the house of BJP MLA Madaal Virupakshappa’s son Prashanth Kumar a day after he was caught taking Rs 40 lakh bribe from a contractor.

According to Lokayukta sources, Prashanth, the chief accounts officer of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, was caught red-handed on Thursday evening while accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh from a contractor at the Karnataka Soap and Detergent Limited (KSDL) office.

Virupakashappa is the chairman of KSDL and Prashanth was allegedly receiving ‘first instalment’ of the bribe on behalf of his father, the Lokayukta sources said. The policemen also found three bags full of cash from the KSDL office.

The Lokayukta sleuths raided Prashanth’s house immediately after he was caught and continued their operations on Friday.

The Lokayukta sources said on Friday they recovered Rs six crore in cash from Prashanth’s house.

Prashanth was caught while taking bribe from a contractor who had supplied chemicals required by the KSDL for soap and detergent production.

The MLA’s son had demanded Rs 81 lakh and Rs 40 lakh was the first instalment.

The contractor had approached the Lokayukta a week ago and the trap was laid.

Meanwhile, reacting to the arrest, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the trap was a proof that the Lokayukta has been revived to contain corruption unlike the previous Congress regime which created a separate anti-corruption bureau apart from the Lokayukta institution to cover up their wrong deeds.

Due to the lack of a strong Lokayukta in the past, many corruption cases during the Congress regime could never got investigated, Bommai told reporters in Bengaluru. ”We have been repeatedly saying that we will conduct impartial probe. Our stand in this case as well is that the independent Lokayukta institution will carry out impartial investigation and whoever has done wrong will face action. There is no change in our stand,” Bommai said.

”All the information and the money found there everything is now with the Lokayukta. Let an independent and justified investigation take place. Our objective is that the truth should come out like whose money it was and for what purpose it was meant,” he added.

Regarding Congress state president D K Shivakumar’s statement that this incident was a proof that the current BJP government is 40 per cent commission government, Bommai said there were many corruption charges against Congress MLAs and ministers but they covered it up by creating the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

He also said many corruption cases during the Congress regime have been given to the Lokayukta, which will investigate and bring out truth.

Alleging that the Congress MLA and former minister K J George had said in the Karnatkaa Assembly that the ACB should continue, the Chief Minister wondered what his intentions were.

”Whose side is he (George)? It’s not possible to show off that they were the cleanest people based on this case (Lokayutka trapping MLA’s son). There are many cases against them. Cases are being investigated. We will give all the cases to Lokayukta, which they had covered up,” Bommai said.