Bangalore, July 25, 2013: Complainant submits documents to the Special court
The private complaint filed against the Lokayukta Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) H N Sathyanarayana Rao in the Special Lokayukta Court took a new twist on Thursday with the complainant alleging that the senior IPS officer had hidden details of a particular property.
Former councillor of Hulimavu and RTI activist Lakshminarayana had filed a case against Rao alleging that he had forwarded a favourable report to the government about former IAS officer Veerabhadraiah, when his opinion was sought for granting voluntary retirement. The matter is being heard by the Lokayukta Court at present.
On Thursday, Lakshminarayana submitted documents to the court indicating that Rao owned a bungalow worth more than Rs two crore and the same was registered in his wife Lakshmi Rao’s name. He alleged that this bungalow had been brought with money received as illegal gratification and, the property was not mentioned anytime during the time of filing assets and liabilities. The matter has been posted to August 5 for further hearing.
When contacted, Rao said the property had been registered in his wife’s name and had already been sold. “The property was entirely owned by my wife. It was purchased with her own money and not given by me, so there was no need for me to list it in my assets and liabilities. The property was purchased in 2007 and was sold one-and-a-half years ago. Both these transactions were intimated to the government. I did this as I had given a gift of a couple of lakhs of rupees to her,” Rao said.
In his complaint, Lakshminarayana has stated that Veerabhadraiah in 2010 sought voluntary retirement to which he was eligible from October 31, 2012. The complainant stated that the State denied his request as the Lokayukta police had registered a case under Prevention of Corruption Act for possessing assets disproportionate to known sources of income.
He alleged that when the government sought the ADGP’s opinion, he suppressed the facts about the status of cases against Veerabhadraiah; especially a charge sheet recommended against him in one of the cases and added that Lokayukta police had no role to play in granting approval for voluntary retirement. He claimed that following this report, the government allowed Veerabhadraiah to take VRS overnight and paved the way for him to contest the May 5 Assembly elections from the Madhugiri constituency. Rao submitted a favourable report for pecuniary gain and hence had committed an offence under Prevention of Corruption Act, he has alleged.
