The state government transferred Southern Range IGP Dr K Ramachandra Rao on Saturday to ensure an impartial probe into the missing of `2.07 crore hawala money allegedly belonging to gold merchants of Kerala.
He will be replaced by Bijay Kumar Singh, Inspector General of Police, Administration (Chief Office), Bangalore. This is the second transfer in the last 10 days in connection with the case. A week ago, DySP Srihari Baragur was also transferred from Mysore.
The case of the missing of hawala money took a serious turn after the arrest of Prakash, the gunman of Rao by CID. Sources said the transfer came after the CID requested Home Minister K S George to shift some top officials of the Southern Range following which the Minister had recently said he had sought the government’s approval.
Rao was directed to report at the office of the DG and IGP and wait till further orders. The order was issued in concurrence with the Election Commission of India, by Dr Bagadi Gautham, Deputy Secretary to Government, DP and AR (Services) on Saturday.
On March 12, SP Abhinav Khare had suspended six policemen attached to Mysore South Police Station for allegedly misusing `2.07 crore seized from a Kerala-bound bus at Yelwala on January 4 during a raid.
All the six were absconding. Later, Khare had requested the DG and IGP to hand over the case to CID following which its sleuths arrested Prakash.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, CID sleuths arrested three of the accused at Jyothi Nagar Police Quarters here.
The gold merchants had approached the Kerala government which in turn asked its Karnataka counterpart to look into the case. They alleged that the accused cops had shown only `20 lakh in record.