BENGALURU: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has named former minister B Nagendra as the prime accused in its chargesheet submitted to the Special Court in the multi-crore scam in Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki ST Development Corporation.
The Ballari MLA has been reportedly charged with spending funds to the tune of Rs 20 crore during the last Lok Sabha election in his constituency.
The chargesheet was reportedly submitted to the special court on Monday afternoon. It is learnt that the ED has named over 20 people as accused in the chargesheet. However, Raichur Rural MLA Basanagouda Daddal, chairman of the corporation, has not been named in the chargesheet.
Sleuths of the ED had questioned him during their investigation. In the chargesheet, the central agency is said to have mentioned that Rs 97 crore has been misappropriated. The accused diverted money to multiple bank accounts of various shell companies, particularly in Telangana. Besides Nagendra, the ED has named former managing director of the corporation JG Padmanabha and middlemen Satyanarayana Verma and Satyanarayana Etakari in the chargesheet.
The ED arrested Nagendra under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on July 12 after raiding 23 premises in four states. Houses of Nagendra and Daddal were also raided.
Nagendra resigned as Minister for Sports, Youth Empowerment and ST Welfare on June 6 after the scam came to light following corporation’s accounts superintendent P Chandrashekharan’s suicide in Shivamogga.