Karnataka: Lokayukta police arrest BBMP joint commissioner over bribery charges
The arrested officer has been identified as SM Srinivas, the joint commissioner of BBMP west division. A first division assistant, Umesh, has also been arrested.
3 min read
The Janadhikara Sangharsha Parishat alleged that chief reporters at a prominent English and Kannada daily were given bribes in the guise of Diwali gifts by the media coordinator to CM Bommai.(Representational)The Lokayukta police Monday caught a Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer posted with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) over bribery charges.
The arrested officer has been identified as SM Srinivas, the joint commissioner of BBMP west division. A first division assistant, Umesh, has also been arrested.
Lokayukta officials said a person named Manjunath had filed a complaint that the accused were demanding a bribe of Rs 12 lakh from him for Khata transfer (a document that shows the account of the owner of a property listed in the BBMP’s property registry).
After Manjunath filed the complaint, a trap to arrest Srinivas was laid by superintendent of police KV Ashok and deputy SP Anthonyraj on the instructions of Lokayukta Justice BS Patil. The Lokayukta police said Umesh was arrested while collecting the money on behalf of Srinivas.
Notably, this is the first big raid by the Lokayukta since it got back the police wing and powers to register cases.
The development comes just days after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), a government-controlled agency, was dissolved by the state government following an order of the Karnataka High Court.
The high court order quashed a notification issued by the then Congress-led state government on March 14, 2016, creating the ACB and also subsequent notifications transferring the power to probe corruption cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, from the Karnataka Lokayukta police to the ACB.
“All inquiries, investigations and other disciplinary proceedings pending before ACB will get transferred to the Lokayukta. However, all inquiries, investigations, disciplinary proceedings, orders of convictions/acquittals and all other proceedings held by ACB till today are hereby saved and the police wing of Karnataka Lokayukta shall proceed from the stage at which they are pending as on today, in accordance with law,” the high court said in its order.
According to a source in the government, the ACB had registered 2,121 cases between 2016 and June 2022 and 1,034 cases were pending for investigation. The ACB had 322 posts including one additional director general of police who headed the organisation, one inspector general of police (IGP), 10 superintendents of police, 35 deputy superintendents of police, 75 police inspectors and 200 police constables. The court ordered the transfer of all positions to the Lokayukta police wing.
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