BENGALURU: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has suspended two staffers, one on a serious criminal charge which has caused losses to the organisation, and another for indulging in the malpractice of forging exam documents to advance his career.B Venkatramanappa in the Site Allotment section and M Mari Gowda, a Senior Divisional Assistant in the Accounts section, stand suspended since November 4 and separate inquiries are under way, BDA Commissioner H R Mahadev told TNIE.
Venkatramanappa has 9 charges against him spread over a period of time. He has caused a loss of at least `3 crore to BDA. According to a senior BDA official, he was booked earlier for managing to get sites earmarked for the economically weaker category in JP Nagar 8th Stage in the names of his family members in July 2018. “He ensured sites in the names of his wife, brother, brother’s wife and co-brother’s wife. We received a tip off and found them to be true. He was suspended but using political influence, he managed to get it revoked.”
The latest charges for which he has been suspended are under pricing two BDA sites, one at Sir M Visvesvaraya Layout and another in Harohalli area, he said. “We received a tip-off only last week though he had indulged in the malpractice in April 2017. Being in the Site Allotment section, he managed to create fake documents and sold a 30x40 sq ft site at just 40% of the value to another buyer. Instead of the BDA fixed price of `11,840 per sqft, he sold them for `29,600 per sqft and pocketed money from the buyer.” Another site in Nandini Layout (100x80 sq ft) was sold at a throwaway price of `17 lakh when its actual cost was `1.5 crore.
He has finally been caught for forging documents. “We got a tip-off that the documents he submitted in 2008 to get promoted from Second Divisional Assistant to First Divisional Assistant were fake. The document on examination reveals it had been overwritten using a whitener. We checked with KPSC and learnt he had not cleared the exam,” he said.