BENGALURU: Sathyanarayana Itakari, chairman of First Finance Cooperative Society in Hyderabad, who is accused No. 3 in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation scam, received Rs 68 lakh as commission, at the rate of 2 per cent.
Apart from getting Rs 1.5 crore in his wife’s bank account, along with a considerable amount for opening 18 fake accounts for the transfer of Rs 89.62 crore from the bank account of the corporation.
The SIT probing the scam disclosed this in the statement of objections filed before the Special Court dealing with cases registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act, in response to bail applications filed by eight accused, including Itakari.
The other accused who approached the court for bail were Srinivasa Rao Kaki (A-2), Parushuram Durgannavar (A-6), Chandra Mohan Kukthapuram (A-7), Jagadish GK (A-8), Teja Thamatam (A-9), Sai Teja Reddy Devarapalli (A-4) and Nageshwar Rao (A-11).
According to the SIT, Itakari, as chairman of the Society, opened 18 fake accounts in collusion with accused No.1 (JG Padmanabha, ex-managing director of the corporation) and others and transferred Rs 89.62 crore directly from the corporation account to the 18 accounts to get the commission.
He routed this amount through more than 300 accounts in the name of traders, businessmen and others, enabling the first accused to get it by way of kickback.
The court noted that, as per records placed before it, the investigating agency had already recovered Rs 51.11 crore, including gold worth Rs 11.70 crore, a Mercedes Benz worth Rs 1.2 crore and a Lamborghini worth Rs 3.31 crore from accused No.1, 2, 5, 7 and 8 during the probe.
After hearing arguments of the counsels for the accused and prosecution, Judge KM Radhakrishna noted that grant of conditional bail to accused No 3, 6, 9 and 11 would not affect the investigation or prejudice the prosecution in any manner, since the peculiar facts of the case do not indicate their requirement for custodial interrogation for the remainder of the investigation.
The high court also released accused No. 12 on conditional bail, and no criminal antecedents were noticed against accused No. 3, 6, 9 and 11.
It was made clear that if future acts of the accused are likely to affect the interest of the prosecution or create an obstacle for further investigation, the investigating agency would be free to seek cancellation of bail at any stage of the proceedings, the judge said, granting conditional bail to four accused.