BENGALURU: The Karnataka Lokayukta police have unearthed a loss of Rs 16.84 crore to the state’s exchequer due to alleged irregularities in Dr B R Ambedkar Development Corporation in Vijayapura in respect of allotment of lands for landless people belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe.
This came to light when the investigation was conducted by the Lokayukta police following the registration of crime on December 26, 2024, under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC based on a complaint and also the search conducted by them.
According to the official statement, the complainant alleged that money had been misused by creating fake sale deeds in the name of true beneficiaries who were poor landless women of agricultural families between 2014 and 2018.
The search was conducted for five days from December 30 in the premises of eight officials including the then Manager of the Corporation, Renuka Satarle, the then District Manager of the Corporation, retired district Manager S S Managiri and others.
The investigation conducted following the directions of Lokayukta Justice B S Patil revealed that the accused officials have violated the norms of allotment of lands, fabricating the documents in the name of the women of the communities as if they had got allotted the lands from the corporation though they were purchased on their own. This apart, the accused officials have also allotted the lands to ineligible persons and also the allotment of lands to people belonging to the same family.
The investigation also disclosed that 23 files of the corporation belonging to 2012 to 2018 were missing and fake sale deeds, registration and stamp duty receipts were found in 33 files which resulted in the loss of Rs 16.84 crore to the state’s exchequer. The further investigation is continued, the statement issued by the office of the Lokayukta said.