BENGALURU: Upa Lokayukta Justice B Veerappa has kept pace with technology and come up with the idea of checking digital payments received as bribes by government officials during his surprise visits to districts.
He has come across officials who have received bribes in lakhs of rupees through digital payments. Whenever officials sense an impending raid by the Upa Lokayukta, they quickly uninstall digital payment apps, like Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm etc, from their phones.
But Justice Veerappa knows them and their modus operandi too well. He has now been taking with him a team of technical staff to check the mobile phones of officials. He will get the tech staff to re-install the apps within minutes and check if there are any suspicious financial transactions. He is assisted by his Secretary Aravind N V, Deputy Registrar-1.
Bribe trail: Officials took lakhs via UPI apps
During his recent surprise visit to Mandya district, around 500 government staff and officials had uninstalled such apps. The technical staff made them all reinstall the apps and found hefty bribes being rerouted to them from the accounts of their friends and relatives.
Take the instance of Mandya Taluk Panchayat Manager VS Bairesh, who received complaints against employees though he did not have the authority to do so. Armed with such complaints and without informing the executive officer, he would confront the employees and blackmail them.
In collusion with certain officials, he would also make money from zilla panchayat officials who were expecting promotions. His salary was Rs 90,000 per month, but he had received lakhs from his mother’s phone through PhonePe.
Another was Mandya Zilla Panchayat Deputy Secretary Babu M, who had digital transactions beyond his actual salary in his PhonePe account. He was allegedly threatening and harassing women employees. He was accused of not forwarding complaints he received against panchayat development officers and other employees to the chief executive officer to protect them.
Both Bairesh and Babu had not obtained permission for transactions and also not mentioned them in their assets and liabilities, which is illegal.
Justice Veerappa said they have stopped checking the pockets of public servants but scrutinise their digital payment apps that reveal sordid stories of bribery. It started when he visited the Nelamangala Municipal Corporation near Bengaluru. Officials there had received huge amounts of money through these dig-payment apps without getting the necessary approvals from their higher-ups or the government which is mandatory under the Karnataka State Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 2021.
He said it is common to see government staff uninstalling such apps soon after his visit. He witnessed it in Davanagere, Ballari and Kolar districts.