BENGALURU: The chief accounts officer and financial advisor, officers and staff of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) have been booked by the Wilson Garden police for allegedly a causing loss of over Rs 11 crore to the corporation.
Based on a complaint filed by Ramya CK, BMTC security and vigilance officer, an FIR was registered by the Wilson Garden police. Abdul Khuddus, BMTC chief accounts officer and financial advisor, has been named as the first accused.
As per the FIR, the commercial wing of BMTC had to issue an invoice for GST and licence fee to be collected every month from its commercial shops/establishments. But between March 2021 and December 2022, 456 credit notes were issued to the licensees exempting them from paying the fees and related GST to the accounts section from the commercial section. 52 such credit notes were issued without approval and accounts have been manipulated, the FIR stated.
The accounts section has allowed the exemption without verifying the credit notes, resulting in a loss of commercial revenue of Rs 11.81 crore to the BMTC coffers, the FIR alleged. Officials of both the commercial and accounts sections had created fake documents and caused the loss, it added.
Apprehending arrest, Vijayalaxmi Somayya Hiremath, then accounts officer of BMTC and now working at KSRTC, approached the city civil court for anticipatory bail. Objecting to her bail petition, the public prosecutor argued that there is a prima facie case against the petitioner. Without any office order, the petitioner prepared the credit note and she is also responsible for the loss to the exchequer, the PP said.
Judge Shriram Narayan Hegde, LV Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, allowed the anticipatory bail petition filed by Vijayalaxmi Hiremath with conditions.