BENGALURU: A 20-member team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from New Delhi started searches at the residential premises of some senior IPS officers including former Bengaluru Police Commissioner Alok Kumar on Thursday morning. The raids are in connection with the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) ponzi scam and alleged phone tapping of politicians and bureaucrats during the tenure of the Congress-JDS government, top sources said.
The CBI team reached the Additional Director General of Police, Karnataka State Reserve Polic's residence in Shoolay Circle early in the morning.
According to sources, the CBI is questioning him based on the interrogation of two Central Crime Branch inspectors Maltesh and Mirza, who are posted in the technical wing of the CCB. They reportedly told CBI that Alok Kumar had asked them to download an audio file of the controversial conversation between the incumbent police commissioner Bhaskar Rao and an alleged power broker Faraz from an alleged illegally tapped conversation in which the two are heard talking about using their connections in the Congress high command for Bhaskar Rao’s posting as police commissioner.
The CBI has taken over the investigation from the Bengaluru Police in both cases and has submitted the preliminary charge sheet in the IMA multi-crore ponzi scam.
The involvement of senior police officers and politicians in both cases are being investigated.
"It has come to the notice of the government that there are apprehensions that phones of several ruling and opposition political leaders, their relatives, and other government officials have been intercepted in an illegal unauthorised unwarranted manner," the letter entrusting the probe to the CBI said.
The Karnataka government led by B S Yediyurappa had announced a CBI probe after disqualified JD(S) MLA A H Vishwanath, who served as the party's state president and turned rebel, accused the H D Kumaraswamy dispensation of tapping phones and spying on more than 300 people, including him.
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(With PTI inputs)