BENGALURU: A day after the Lokayukta police wrote to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, seeking sanction to file a chargesheet against former minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan for allegedly possessing around Rs 20 crore disproportionate assets (DA), Lokayukta relieved IPS officer Shivaprakash Devaraju as Bengaluru Urban Superintendent of Police-1. He has been repatriated to his mother department.
Shivaprakash, who had served at the Lokayukta for less than a year, received the order relieving him when he reached the office at 10.30 am on Friday. Just the previous day, the Lokayukta police had written to the governor, seeking sanction to prosecute Zameer after a team led by Shivaprakash completed the investigation into the DA case registered against him, following details shared by the Enforcement Directorate in 2022 after its raid on the former minister’s residence.
When contacted, Lokayukta Justice BS Patil said that Shivaprakash was doing well and that certain issues cannot be discussed in public. His repatriation has been done for the administrative convenience of the institution, Justice Patil said.
Crackdown on corruption cut short for Lokayukta SP
The officers and other employees are under the administrative disciplinary control of the Lokayukta as per Section 15(4) of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act.
A 2014-batch IPS officer, Shivaprakash was posted as SP-1 on July 30, 2025 after he wrote to the Lokayukta institution, expressing his desire to serve the anti-corruption watchdog.
Sources privy to the developments said the IPS officer took up several sensitive and high-profile cases, including putting an end to alleged extortion of money from public servants by leaking information on possible raids.
High-profile cases also included the July 7 raid on the offices and residences of Special Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru MK Jagadish and two other officials over illegal allotment of 13 acres of land worth several crores to private persons at Hunasamaranahalli and raids on eight deputy commissioners of the excise department to check corruption in applications for licence renewals, etc.
He was instrumental in 31 traps, 17 DA cases against officers, including one who served under the then chief minister, and 11 other miscellaneous cases in his tenure of less than a year at the Lokayukta.
He had prepared a department-wise dossier to take on corrupt officials using AI tools, which had never been done before at the institution. He had sent several proposals seeking sanction from competent authorities to prosecute corrupt officers, sources said.
“I am satisfied with the job I did at the Lokayukta,” Shivaprakash said, adding that it was a short stint and there was much to do. In his decade-long career which began in 2016, he was transferred nine times.