Whistleblower among 3 IAS officers raided by Lokayukta

In a concerted action early on Tuesday, the Karnataka Lokayukta police conducted raids on the residences and properties – 14 premises in all - owned by three prominent Indian Administrative Service officers suspected of having assets disproportionate to their known income.

The officers in the dock are the former Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike or (BBMP) civic commissioner Siddaiah, Karnataka Neeravari Nigama Ltd managing director Mohammed A Sadiq and deputy general manager of the Upper Krishna Project M V Veerabhadraiah.

Siddaiah had the reputation of a whistleblower – he unearthed a Rs1,500-crore bogus bills scam in the civic corporation. He was shunted out of his post days after he handed over the probe to the police last month, and has been without a posting since then.

He was found to be in possession of assets totalling Rs1.90 crore whereas his income from known sources totalled just Rs55 lakh, Lokayukta Additional Director General of Police Satyanarayana Rao told newspersons in Bangalore.

He allegedly owns 120 acres of land in Badigere village near Harohalli valued at Rs40 lakh, a large house on a 4,000 sq ft plot in Dollars Colony worth Rs90 lakh and a house on Jayanagar 10th Main, among other things. The raiding party also recovered 1.6 kg gold and 13 kg silver from his house.

Lokayukta officials said that the actual market value of these properties is at least 50 times more than their official estimate, at Rs250 crore. ''We calculated the worth of the properties going by the guidance value fixed by the government at the time of their registration,'' said Rao.