By Bhavatosh Singh

Copyright timesnownews

The Central Bureau of Investigation, Monday, carried out searches at 16 locations in 3 states – Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Investigations revolve around alleged siphoning off government funds to personal bank accounts of then ministers’ aides and relatives in a case pertaining to financial irregularities in M/s Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki Schedule Tribe Development Corporation Limited. “We are probing suspected siphoning of government funds to personal accounts of associates and relatives of the then minister. KMVSTDCL is a Karnataka Government undertaking,” said officials. KMVSTDCL maintained an account at MG Road Branch in Bengaluru. In June 24, the CBI field a case under sections of cheating, forgery. “It has been alleged there was financial misappropriation amounting to Rs 84.63 crores through illegal transfer/withdrawal from the accounts of KMVSTDCL during the period 21st February 24 till 6th May 24,” said officials. Last November a BJP MLA Basangouda R Patil filed a writ petition before Karnataka High Court asking CBI to file a final report and submit an interim status report. Karnataka High Court has been monitoring the CBI probe and four status report has been filed. CBI sources claims that their investigations has revealed there has been more instances of diversion of funds of government funds from ST Welfare Deparment and Karnataka German Technical Institute have been established. “ST Welfare Deparment is under administrative control of ST Welfare Ministry whose minister at that was B Nagendra. Investigations shows Rs 2.17 cr fron ST Welfare Department was allegedly transferred through an intermediary firms M/s SKR Infrastructure and M/s Golden Establishment in the account of Dhanalaxmi Enterprises belonging to Nekkanti Nagaraj, a close associate of the Sri B Nagendra,” said sources. “Around Rs 1.20 Crores were further routed into the accounts of the associates and relatives of the then minister Shri B. Nagendra, including his sister, brother-in-law, and personal assistant,” they added. CBI officials in the investigation have also detected diversion of funds from Karnataka German Technical Training Institute. “Approximately Rs 64 Lakhs in the bank account of KGTTI were diverted to M/s Sadguru Education Trust and M/s Sadguru Solutions, thereafter to M/s Skillpoint Training, and ultimately to entities such as M/s Style Machine, before reaching N. Ravikumar(Nekkanti Nagaraj’s) and N. Yashwanth Chowdhry (Nekkanti Nagaraj’s nephew). The Enforcement Directorate has been probing the money laundering related offences of KMVSTDCL. Last month the ED had provisionally attached properties worth approximately Rs 5 crore, including immovable assets and bank balances in the case. According to the ED, the attached immovable properties, including land and flats, are valued at Rs 4.45 crore and belong to Nekkenti Nagaraj, Chandra Mohan, Golapalli Kishore Reddy, and Etakeri Satyanarayana. Movable property, in the form of bank accounts, amounts to around Rs 50 lakh in First Finance Credit Cooperative Bank Limited. The ED had said it “initiated investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by the Karnataka Police and CBI after the tragic suicide of KMVSTDCL employee Shri Chandrashekhar on 26.05.2024 wherein it is alleged that the accused persons illegally transferred the money from the account of the KMVSTDCL and misappropriated the funds with the intent to cheat and defraud the Corporation of public money amounting to Rs. 89.63 Crore by forging the valuable securities and documents.”