BENGALURU: A day after conducting searches on 14 premises of some state excise officers, in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Belagavi, including the Belagavi Additional Excise Commissioner YD Manjunath, in connection with an alleged money laundering and disproportionate assets case, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Bengaluru Zonal Office (BZO) charged the State Excise department with rampant and organised corruption.
Manjunath is the son of former Ballari MP Y Devendrappa and brother-in-law of Karnataka Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi.
“The state excise department is running like an organised syndicate network of public officials, their associates and private individuals for collection of bribes. The network works like a well-oiled machine which runs on corruption money generated by various excise shops which pay a fixed monthly bribe to the field officers,” the ED stated in an official release on Thursday.
The agency further claimed, “Most of the officers of the Excise department (in Karnataka) have obtained liquor licenses in the names of their family members/entities controlled by family members and are illegally running liquor business.”
Syndicate worked like ‘well-oiled machine’, says ED
The ED, on June 24, conducted search operations under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 on 14 premises across Bengaluru, Mysuru and Belagavi in Karnataka covering Excise officials Jagdish Nayak, KM Thammanna and Manjunath along with their family members, business partners and associates on the “allegation of systemic corruption in state excise department and therefore, amassing of wealth by government officials”.
During the search proceedings, “incriminating evidence in the form of digital devices, bribe distribution cash books, property documents etc were seized from different premises. The search operations resulted in the seizure of Proceeds of Crime (PoC) in the form of around Rs 5.5 crore in cash, gold jewellery worth approximately Rs 7.8 crore and foreign currency worth Rs 3.3 lakh from the premises of Manjunath, his driver, family members and his associates. Therefore, total PoC seized in this case so far, amounts to Rs 13.3 crore,” the ED stated.
It initiated the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the Karnataka Lokayukta police against senior officers of the Karnataka Excise Department on the “allegation of collecting illegal gratification for processing/issuing various excise licences and thereby using these illegal gratifications for personal aggrandisement.
The information collected from FIR was further bolstered by various verifiable complaint and documents received by the Directorate regarding money laundering activities/processes done by the accused public servants through acquisition of immovable/ movable properties, benami transactions and investment in businesses by the illegally enriched public servants through their family members and associates,” the ED stated.
Explaining the modus operandi of the accused government officers, the Central law enforcement agency stated, “The organised syndicate network of public officials, their associates and private individuals works like a well-oiled machine which runs on corruption money generated by various excise shops which pay a fixed monthly bribe to the field officers.
The money is also generated during renewal/shifting of licences and also during issuing of fresh licenses. The bribe collected is centrally pooled and distributed with the help of intermediaries and associates, who maintain an account of money received and paid in an unofficial cash book (seized from one premise),” the ED said.
“This illegal gratification, the PoC so generated is used by the individual officers for personal consumption, investment in properties and business. The income was projected to be generated from legal businesses, thus integrating the PoC in the regular economy,” the agency added.