Extortion racket: Karnataka Lokayukta PRO Syed Riyaz arrested

“We received a tip-off that Riyaz had got himself admitted in the hospital for the past couple of days, and when we went there and confronted him he said that he had some health issues. So we referred him to Victoria Hospital, where doctors gave a clean chit and we took him into our custody,” an official said.

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Riyaz has served in the anti-graft agency for more than 10 years and allegedly worked in close tandem with those who had threatened Bengaluru Urban executive engineer M N Krishnamurthy to either pay up Rs 1 crore or face a raid by the Lokayukta.

The matter came to light after Krishnamurthy approached then newly appointed Lokayukta SP Sonia Narang about the matter in May.

Narang subsequently complained to the Lokayukta registrar about the matter.

Officials said they were banking on the information they gather from Riyaz.

“We hope that the information from Riyaz will help us build a stronger case against the accused,” an official said.