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Journalism of Courage
A 50-year-old Karnataka government employee of a tribal development corporation allegedly died by suicide at his home in Shivamogga on Sunday and his death has triggered a political row in the state with the Opposition BJP asking the Congress government to sack Scheduled Tribes Welfare Minister B Nagendra.
In a six-page purported suicide note, Chandrashekaran P, who was working as superintendent at Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation in Bengaluru, accused his senior officers of forcing him to open a parallel bank account to divert unaccounted money from the corporation’s primary account.
The police said Chandrashekaran ended his life when his wife Kavita and son were in Bhadravati. The death came to light at around 5 pm on Sunday when Kavita returned home, and later, the police found the death note in a book near the TV table.
On Monday, Shivamogga BJP MLA S N Channabasappa displayed the death note at a press conference and alleged that the government needed to investigate the case as the officer was pressurised. Kavita said her husband. who had previously worked with Bhadravati-based Mysore Paper Mills, was an honest officer and never discussed office issues at home.
Channabasappa alleged that Chandrashekaran mentioned in the death note that he was directed by a minister and an officer to open a “sweep-in and sweep-out account” that allowed customers to transfer funds between savings and current accounts and link fixed deposit accounts at a bank branch on M G Road in Bengaluru.
The MLA stated that the corporation had received a total grant of Rs 187.3 crore in its various accounts, and Rs 85 crore of the grant had been transferred to other accounts in a suspected act of siphoning.
Training his guns on minister B Nagendra, Karnataka BJP chief B Y Vijayendra said the Congress leaders were indulging in corruption under the disguise of working for Dalits and tribal communities, “I demand the government to immediately sack B Nagendra, minister of youth empowerment, sports and ST welfare, and the investigation into the death of the officer must be carried out in a transparent manner,” he said in a post written in Kannada on the social media platform X.
Following Chandrashekaran’s death, the Vinoba Nagar police in Shivamogga have registered a case of unnatural death under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections on abetment to suicide.
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