MYSORE: Administrative Training Institute (ATI) director-general Rashmi V on Thursday accused the police of looking the other way when she was attacked on Wednesday.
She was attacked by a mob soon after mess manager Venkatesh’s body was found in a sump on the ATI premises. Initially, police suspected that the assailants were Venkatesh’s relatives, but the arrests on Thursday show that they were employees of an agency whose contract was terminated by Rashmi.
She told reporters that she had written to the chief secretary in detail about the incident. Rashmi said in the letter that the police chose not to be there though her office was in touch with the Office of the Commissioner of Police since morning. “The entire attack was an attempt to deviate focus from the irregularities in the Administrative Training Institute, State Institute of Urban Development and Abdul Nasirsab Institute of Rural Development. The police aided and abetted the attack by their sheer indifference and failure to protect a public servant on duty,” she has stated in the letter.
She said she would have been lynched but for the fact that she did not lose her balance and fall down.
Rashmi said she is confident that the government will act on her report that has thrown light on misappropriation to the tune of `100-crore allegedly by previous ATI DG Amita Prasad and other officials.
‘No Pressure on Mess Manager’
No notice was issued to hostel mess manager Venkatesh, whose body was found in a sump on Wednesday, Rashmi said.
She said he was neither under work pressure nor had he been divested of his earlier responsibilities.
She said it was Venkatesh who helped her understand the intricacies of the contracts and felt an innocent person had been made a victim by vested interests. She alleged some ATI employees own agencies, and take advantage of the government’s lenience. Her report to the Chief Secretary complains of large-scale misappropriation between 2008 and 2014.
She said `65 crore was released under the 12th Finance Commission, and many spending norms were bypassed. The works were split, and repeated payments were done to the same agencies, the report says.
Auditorium, which ought to cost `3 crore, has already cost the government Rs 7 crore, and work is still in progress, she said.
Rural kitchen infrastructure was bought for `70 lakh, but no stocks are entered in the registry.
Listing out more than 30 cases of misappropriation, Rashmi said at least 22 members of one family had been hired by the previous DG Amita Prasad.