BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike hasn’t paid many of its contractors who have executed civic works, but it has allegedly cleared ‘bills’ to the tune of over Rs 1.4 crore to some contractors who had not done any work in Rajarajeshwari Nagar Assembly constituency. Congress MLA Munirathna represents the assembly seat and the contract for works was given to Vrushabhadri Constructions in which he has stakes, according to the chargsheet filed by police.
What is more interesting is that the accused officials have issued the ‘work completion certificate’ for works which have not been done and also completely disregarded norms while issuing cheques. In some places, work was taken up much after the money was released after realising that the Lokayukta police had registered a case and may do a reality check. Out of 10 such works investigated by the Lokayukta police, a total of RS 1.43 crore loss was caused to the state exchequer by BBMP officials in collusion with the contractors, according to the chargesheet filed before the special court recently.
During the investigation, the Lokayukta police had seized 1,300 files of BBMP and cash of Rs 1.61 lakh, two CPUs, rubbers stamps, etc., from a residence which is in the name of Manjula, wife of Munirathna, in Vyalikaval, on December 27, 2014. The raid was conducted after Y H Srinivas of Brashtachara Virodhi Vedike filed a complaint with the Lokayukta police alleging that bills to the tune of `120 crore had been paid to contractors whereas no works were carried out in Yeshwanthpur sub-division. To cover up this, BBMP officials created 1,100 bogus files to build records for the expenditure at an old house on Vyalikaval Main Road, the complaint said.
A team of Lokayukta police had recorded the statements of 26 witnesses during the investigation into the works taken up from 2011 to December 27, 2014. “...the accused officials have helped the contractors to get illegal profit of Rs 1.43 crore...and this is considered as loss to the state’s exchequer”, the chargesheet says. The case has been registered under Prevention of Corruption Act against the officials and under IPC as well as Prevention of Corruption Act against the contractors.
