BENGALURU: THE raid on an assistant director of Agriculture department has shocked the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials as they found that he had rented out a building standing on a 3.5- acre encroached land to his own department. The accused - Francis Paul Miranda, assistant director of agriculture serving in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district - is set to retire in March 2018, and was caught when the ACB team raided his house in Bantwal.
The ACB, on December 13, raided 11 government officials simultaneously across Karnataka. Sharing details about Miranda’s assets, sources in the ACB said that as of now they had found assets 179 per cent higher than the income he had shown. His assets included a `30 lakh worth house in Pakshikere in Uttara Kannada district, a flat worth `30 lakh in Manipal, and an office building on a 3.5- acre land in Pakshikere, which is said to be encroached. Interestingly, the building that was completed in 2016 was given to agriculture department on rent for an unknown amount. Besides, Miranda has 12 acres of land in Pakshikere, two acres of land in Udupi, `80 lakh in fixed deposits, two cars worth around `28 lakh, and `9 lakh in cash when the ACB team raided.
He has also toured foreign countries, especially the countries in the Middle East several times. The investigations are still continuing as the ACB officials found that he had invested in shares and debentures, too, besides life insurances. It may take another week to find it out more details of his total assets, sources said. Sources said Miranda was once caught when he had manipulated money in some official works and the government had ordered stern action to be taken against him. However, he moved the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal, which ordered that he be reinstated.
THE OTHER 10 OFFICIALS RAIDED AND THEIR ASSETS
S Pashavali, Commissioner, Vijayanagara Area Development Authority, Ballari:
Three houses, five sites, one industrial shed, 3.13 acre of land
H B Mallappa, Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation, Kalaburagi:
5 houses, one farm house, 31 acres of land, D23 lakh cash
G C Jagadeesh, Assistant Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, Koratagere:
12 sites, a house worth D50 lakh, 2 acre of land
D Hemanth, Assistant Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation, Chikkaballapur:
One house, 4 sites in BBMP limits, seven sites in Nelamangala,
9.5 acres of land
S M Vasanna, Joint Director, Factory and Boilers, Bengaluru:
Three houses, three sites, two acres of land, seven lakhs of cash
M C Shashikumar, Joint Director, Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Bengaluru:
One house in Mysuru,
an agriculture land, a Nissan car, D50 lakh bank balance and
D2.96 lakh cash
J V Thyagaraj, Assistant
Engineer, BBMP:
5 houses, 8 acres of land,
two cars, three bikes
Chandrahasa, Executive Engineer, Zilla Panchayat, Mandya:
Three houses, one farm house, one site, agricultural lands at various places and D8.5 lakh bank balance.
Pandurang Keshav Pai, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Ankola, Uttara Kannada district:
One house, 6.5 acre of
land, 14.22 lakh bank deposits,
diamond necklace worth
D2.4 lakh, 5.58 Kg of silver
Suresh Bheema Naika, Assistant Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, Kittur, Belagavi:
Three houses, 10 acre poultry farm, 15 acres of agriculture land.