The Special Investigation Team of Karnataka police probing a multi-crore extortion racket in the state Lokayukta filed its second chargesheet against Ashwin Rao, son of Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao, on Thursday. In the 1,572 page chargesheet, the SIT has named Ashwin (49) and the Lokayukta's PR officer Syed Riyazathullah for an attempt to extort Rs 20 lakh from P B Channabasapa, an executive engineer in the state irrigation department, earlier this year. The two others named in the chargesheet are brokers V Bhaskar and Ashok Kumar who, according to Channabasapa, took him to meet Ashwin. [related-post] Ashwin had been arrested in July from Hyderabad after Channabasapa lodged a complaint with Lokayukta police, stating that after his meeting with Ashwin, the brokers allegedly told him that he had demanded Rs 20 lakh to settle a corruption case against him. Last week, the SIT had submitted its first chargesheet related to the extortion racket naming six persons including Ashwin Rao, PR officer Syed Riyazathullah, V Bhaskar, Ashok Kumar, journalist M B Srinivasa Gowda and RTI activist Shankare Gowda as the main accused in an attempt to extort Rs 1 crore from a government engineer M N Krishnamurthy on the Lokayukta office premises. The SIT has so far registered five extortion cases against the Lokayukta's son and his associates and have arrested 11 persons including Ashwin. Meanwhile, the SIT on Thursday recorded the statement of senior IAS officer Shyam Bhat with regard to an alleged attempt by Ashwin and his aides to extort money from him. Sources said the BDA commissioner had admitted that he was targeted by Ashwin, but had added that he had not made any payment or granted any favours to him.
