Congress MLA B. Nagendra.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate i.e. ED claimed on Wednesday that Congress MLA in Karnataka B. It was Nagendra who had hatched the real conspiracy of the alleged scam worth crores of rupees related to Valmiki Nigam. The ED made a sensational claim that the money withdrawn from this body of the state government was also used for a candidate in the Lok Sabha elections held this year. The central agency said that it has filed a prosecution complaint or charge sheet in this case some time ago before a special PMLA court in Bengaluru, of which the court has taken cognizance.
‘Former minister B. Nagendra was made the main accused.
ED said in a statement, ‘MLA and former Minister of Scheduled Tribe Affairs B. Nagendra has been named as the main accused for masterminding the scam. The allegation is that he hired Satyanarayan Verma, Itkari Satyanarayan, J. Yes. He allegedly carried out this scam with the help of 24 others including his key associates like Padmanabha, Nageswara Rao, Nekkenti Nagaraj and Vijay Kumar Gowda. Nagendra was arrested by ED in this case, after which there was political turmoil in the state.
‘Money was withdrawn through several fake accounts’
According to the agency’s claim, its investigation found that ‘at the behest of B Nagendra, the account of the corporation (Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki ST Development Corporation) was transferred without any proper authorization to the MG Road branch, where the Ganga Kalyan Yojana is being run. Under this, Rs 187 crore, including Rs 43.33 crore, were deposited from the state treasury without following proper procedures and in violation of government guidelines. ED alleged that ‘later this money was withdrawn through several fake accounts and converted into cash and gold and silver.’
‘Evidence of expenses found during search operation’
The ED said in its statement that Rs 20.19 crore of the ‘diverted’ funds was used to support a candidate contesting from Bellary constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and B. Also made for Nagendra’s personal expenses. The central agency said that ‘evidence’ of these expenses was found by it during the search operation and was ‘confirmed’ through financial investigation and statements. It claimed that ‘details of these election expenses were found from the mobile phone of Vijay Kumar Gowda, who managed the cash management at the behest of Nagendra.’
‘Money deposited in fake accounts of Andhra and Telangana’
The money laundering case is related to the FIR of Karnataka Police and CBI, in which it was alleged that about Rs 89.62 crore from the accounts of the corporation (Valmiki) were transferred to ‘fake accounts’ in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. These alleged irregularities came to light after Corporation Accounts Superintendent Chandrashekharan P. was found dead on May 21. The Accounts Superintendent had written a suicide note accusing him of illegally transferring money from the corporation to various bank accounts.
Chandrasekaran made serious allegations in the suicide note
In his suicide note, Chandrasekaran alleged that Rs 187 crore was withdrawn from the corporation’s bank account. Apart from this, Rs 88.62 crore was illegally deposited in various accounts of some IT companies and a co-operative bank based in Hyderabad. (Language)
