Karnataka minister B Nagendra denies role in official’s suicide, suspects bank staff of illegally transferring govt funds

The government has already recovered Rs 26.5 crore on Monday, and the bank will transfer Rs 50 crore by Tuesday evening, he told reporters. The remaining amount will be transferred by the end of this month, he added.

Chandrashekaran P, superintendent at the Corporation, had died by suicide Sunday and had left a death note alleging that senior officials had forced him to open a parallel account to divert money from the Corporation’s primary account, based on “oral instructions by a minister”.

The amount was transferred from one Union Bank of India to another allegedly at the behest of J G Padmanabha, Managing Director of the Corporation.

Parashuram G Duragannavar, the MD and accounts officer at the Corporation and Shuchismitha Ravul, Chief Manager, Union Bank of India, were also named in the FIR filed based on the death note.

Chandrashekaran had also accused Ravul of declining to provide cheque books and other documents of the account to which the funds were illegally transferred. The official was left in a spot when he realised on May 23 that the entire funds in the account was withdrawn using the joint signatures of Padmanabha and Durgannavar, following which he decided to die by suicide fearing that he will have to face the consequences.

Nagendra said Padmanabha had also filed a complaint alleging that his signature was forged and that the “money was transferred from one account to another without his knowledge”. The MD claims that he did not receive official messages from the bank about transfer of funds from the primary account to another account, the minister said, claiming that this hinted at the role of bank officials in the fraud. The primary account had a balance of Rs 187.3 crore before the alleged illegal transfer.

“We will recommend (MDs) dismissal from service if he is found guilty,” the minister said. On the death note referring to oral instructions by a minister, Nagendra denied issuing any such instructions. “All my communication for such matters are in writing,” he said, adding that such a large amount could only be transferred after approval for the Corporation Board. “No Board meeting was held prior to the transfers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the opposition BJP continued to demand the resignation of the minister over the issue. BJP state president B Y Vijayendra said that the victim had blamed the department minister for his suicide. “He should be sacked immediately,” he said, demanding a judicial probe by a sitting High Court judge into the incident.

BJP Karnataka, in a post on X, took a dig at the Congress government saying that the incident reflected massive corruption in the government. “Forget sacking the minister, the government has not even offered condolences for the victims’ family,” it said in a post.