BENGALURU: Lokayukta Justice BS Patil has written to Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh recommending action against IPS officer Srinath Mahadeva Joshi, ex-SP of Lokayukta, in an extortion case.
The Lokayukta said, prima facie, the anti-corruption agency’s probe showed that the IPS officer colluded with the dismissed head constable Ningappa and violated the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968.
It appears that Joshi, allegedly, made criminal conspiracy to collect illegal gratification by threatening the state government officials, who have amassed wealth.
There are audio clips of the conversation between them about the collection of money, and the bribe money collected was used to invest in cryptocurrency to convert the black money into white, said the Lokayukta in his letter to the CS.
Ningappa, who met Joshi in January 2025, asked him to speak to the Joint Director of the Excise Department, Nagarajappa, claiming that the latter was his uncle and gather information about Deputy Commissioner of Excise Rangappa. Subsequently, on May 8, Ningappa sent a WhatsApp message to Joshi, “Today discuss with the inspector tomorrow final 25 kg sir” (Sic). At the same time, Ningappa spoke to the Excise Officials and informed Joshi through a WhatsApp message that they had agreed to give money. Here, the code word ‘kg’ meant Rs 1 lakh, the Lokayukta narrated in the letter to the CS, said highly-placed sources.
The CDR has also revealed that Ningappa frequently visited the Lokayukta office and had constant contact with Joshi. Further, Ningappa sent a WhatsApp message to Joshi that the money collected from the government officials has to be invested in cryptocurrency to convert black into white. This was neither denied nor rejected by Joshi.
When the mobile phone of Ningappa was scrutinised, 24 crypto wallets were found. The probe further revealed that Rs 4.92 crore has been invested in 13 wallets.
What is interesting is that Ningappa used to check Joshi’s crypto wallet to inform him about the loss and profit on a daily basis. This was possible because Joshi had sent his crypto wallet screenshot to him. Updating time to time about how much money has been invested, Ningapa further asked Joshi to invest in the crypto wallet. Now, Rs 4.92 crore invested in cryptocurrency has been frozen and kept under suspension. We still need to find out the source of the said money, and the probe is continuing to find out how much money Joshi has invested using the proceedings of the crime, sources said.
The Lokayukta has also attached the probe report of his Additional Director General of Police, which contains the WhatsApp chats. The response from the CS is awaited, sources said.