Bengaluru: Karnataka minister for tribal welfare, sports and youth affairs, B. Nagendra, has resigned from the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah-led state cabinet over allegations of misappropriation of funds, blunting the Congress government’s anti-graft stand that had helped it storm to power in the 2023 assembly elections.
Nagendra has been accused of siphoning off crores of rupees meant for tribal welfare and stepped down “voluntarily” Thursday. He told the media that he was unaware of the alleged irregularities, had no involvement in the scam and would cooperate in the investigation.
The scandal came to light after P. Chandrashekaran, working as an accounts superintendent at the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (KMVSTDC), died by suicide on 26 May in Shivamogga district, leaving behind a six-page death note in Kannada purportedly written by him.
It named senior officials of the corporation as well as Union Bank officials as responsible for embezzlement of funds from the corporation. ThePrint has accessed the note.
D.K. Shivakumar, deputy CM and president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), Friday said the matter had come out because an official died by suicide. “Because he died by suicide, it (allegations) has come out,” Shivakumar told reporters, pointing out that there have been graft charges against governments of other parties as well.
The deputy CM added that Nagendra had stepped down on his own so as not to “embarrass the party”.
Shivakumar’s statement came on the same day that he along with Congress’s former national president Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramaiah, among others, appeared before a Bengaluru court in a case of defamation filed by the BJP last June.
The case pertained to the Congress’ “corruption rate card” ads published in Kannada and national dailies prior to the Karnataka polls last year. The ads accused the then BJP-led state government of being a “40 percent commission sarkara (government)”.
The Congress had used the “PayCM” and “40 percent commission” campaigns to full effect to target the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government in the run up to the 2023 assembly elections.
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What is ST development corporation scam?
The Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Limited fell under the purview of Nagendra.
In his purported death note, Chandrashekaran alleged that around Rs 88 crore was siphoned off from the corporation to other bank accounts, out of the total Rs 187.33 crore allocated for the corporation’s programmes and projects.
A complaint filed by A. Rajashekar, general manager of the corporation, on 28 May with the High Grounds police station indicates that on 19 February, the corporation changed its account from Union Bank of India’s Vasanth Nagar branch to the MG Road branch in Bengaluru, that would be jointly operated by the MD of the corporation and its accounts officer.
It alleges that the bank failed to send the new passbook and cheque book for the account and when the corporation officials visited the new branch on 21 May, the bank at first refused to hand over the same “claiming the documents were already issued, which was found to be untrue”.
The complaint, which ThePrint has accessed, added that further probe revealed that numerous forged letters, cheques, and forged RTGS requests with fake signatures of the corporation officers and accounts officers led to unauthorised disbursements of Rs 97,73,08,500 from the corporation. Rajashekar named several senior officials from Union Bank of India as being complicit in the acts.
Chandrashekaran’s purported death note names J.G. Padmanabh, the corporation’s now-suspended managing director, accounts officer Parashuram Durugannavar, and Union Bank of India official Shuchismata Raul as responsible for his death.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against several bank officials based on a complaint made by Mahesha J., deputy general manager, Union Bank’s Bengaluru region.
The Karnataka BJP posted on social media the complaint letter to the CBI, dated 3 June, in which it is mentioned that the corporation maintained an account in its MG Road branch. It alleges “cheating, forgery and criminal misappropriation of funds by way of illegal transfer/withdrawal of amounts” from accounts by private persons suspected to be in collusion with Raul and other bank officials.
“In this regard, it is observed that Ms Suchismita Raul, as Branch Head of MG Road branch, failed to verify the genuineness of signatures of the signatories while accepting request for modification of Email ID and mobile number of signatories in the account of M/s KMVSTDCL,” the letter states.
The money was allegedly transferred to cooperative bank accounts in Hyderabad as well as some prominent IT companies.
Chandrashekaran’s wife submitted his purported death note to Vinoba Nagar police station in Shivamogga on 27 May. The note claims that oral instructions were passed on to him by “the minister” to open a “sweep-in-sweep-out” account for the corporation.
ThePrint reached Nagendra with queries over phone but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The Siddaramaiah government has issued a circular stating that unknown persons withdrew money from the corporation’s accounts between 5 March and 23 May.
A special investigation team was formed on 31 May to probe the alleged misappropriation.
Not a first in Karnataka
In July 2016, senior Congress leader K.J. George had resigned from the Siddaramaiah government after the suicide of deputy superintendent of police M.K. Ganapathy in Madikeri town of Kodagu district earlier that month.
In an interview to a local news channel hours before he took his own life, Ganapathy had alleged that George and two senior police officials – A.M. Prasad and Pranob Mohanty – had been harassing him.
Barely three months later, the CID gave George the clean chit in the case and Siddaramaiah inducted him back into the government.
In December 2016, excise minister H.Y. Meti was forced to resign after a sleaze video of the then 71-year-old leader surfaced on TV channels. He was accused of seeking sexual favours from a government official who was seeking his help for a transfer.
The previous BJP government in Karnataka has also had its share of controversies.
Party leader K.S. Eshwarappa stepped down as rural development and panchayat raj minister in April 2022 after a private contractor named him in his suicide note, and alleged non-payment of funds for public works to the tune of Rs 4 crore.
Santosh Patil, the civil contractor who took his own life, had accused Eshwarappa and the others of demanding commission or bribe for release of payments.
Ramesh Jarkiholi, a minister in the Yediyurappa-led BJP government, resigned in March 2021 over a “sex CD”. He was accused of seeking sexual favours from a woman who sought his help for a government job. Purported recordings of calls between the two were also aired by news channels, in which a person believed to be Jarkiholi was heard accusing Yediyurappa of corruption.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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Since it is a Congress scam on ST, it doesn’t matter. Only those done by the BJP matters.