Raids on 7 officials in Karnataka

Bengaluru: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Karnataka on Thursday raided houses and offices of seven state government officials across the state.

“The surprise raids were conducted in Bellary, Bengaluru, Chamarajanagar, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada and Davangere districts,” said the ACB in a statement here.

Inspector General of Police M.A. Saleem and Additional Director General of Police Gagan Deep of the watchdog supervised the searches in all the six districts.

The officials under the scanner are Pampapthi, Principal, Training Centre, Bellary; Basavaraju, Assistant Director, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, Bengaluru; H. R. Rechanna, Teacher, Chamarajanagar; H.L. Puttalingaiah, Assistant Engineer, Irrigation, Chitradurga; Govinda Naik, FDA, Taluk office, Belthangadi, Leelavathi H.B, Senior Women Health Assistant, Panchalakatte Health Centre, Dakshina Kannada and Umesh N. Patil, Assistant Executive Engineer, Davanagere.

“The searches were conducted on credible information that the accused officials were having assets disproportionate to their legal income,” said the Bureau.

The officials were found to possess huge properties, including farmlands, residential and commercial sites, buildings, gold jewellery and silver ornaments, unaccounted cash, cars, bank deposits, lockers and foreign currency, besides incriminating documents in support of the graft chargers.

IANS