BENGALURU: Officials in Karnataka have discovered that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s signature was forged to claim funds under the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF).
According to complaints lodged by one Somashekar with regard to 51 new cases, the racket runs across the state. The CM’s secretariat has found 39 applications with fake bills of Yashodhara Super Speciality Hospital at Solapur, Maharashtra, and 12 such cases from Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad. The total number of false claims is 116.
The report says, a bogus bill was submitted by one Jajamma, who claimed to reside in the CM’s Varuna Assembly Constituency in Mysuru district. His signature was forged to sanction Rs80,000 as against her claim of Rs1.40 lakh as treatment for lung disease. Bhavitha claimed Rs 5.85 lakh for liver treatment from Nagaraje Gowda Memorial Hospital and Shivaraj from Hullahalli in Nanjangud taluk claimed `7.65 lakh for kidney and heart disease treatment from St Joseph’s Hospital, Mysuru. For both claims, the same bills with prescriptions were submitted on forged letter heads.
12 of the applications were accompanied by fake bills from Vatsalya Life Hospital in Solapur, dated February, two months before the hospital was even opened in April 2014. Caste and income certificates too were forged.
According to sources in the CM’s Secretariat, the estimated compensation claimed through fake bills in all the 104 cases amount to around Rs 5 crore. Out of 51 fake cases found recently, 43 are from Jevargi Taluk of Kalaburagi district. Some applications have even been recommended by the local MLAs. “As the number of cases are increasing, the cases were distributed among Ashok Nagar, Cubbon Park and Vivekanagar Police Stations for investigation. As of now, around 25 accused have been detained for interrogation,” a top police official told The Sunday Standard.