Bengaluru: In an unprecedented turn of events Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao on Monday evening reportedly asked the Superintendent of Police, Lokayukta (City) Sonia Narang not to go ahead with the corruption probe ordered by Upalokayukta Justice Subhash Adi last week since he has already asked the government to hand it over to an independent agency.
But deepening the divide between the two top officials at the state's premier anti-corruption agency, Justice Adi told this newspaper that this was unacceptable as his directive was a “judicial order” based on a written complaint which could not be overturned.
“I have directed the SP to investigate into the corruption charges based on a written complaint by Janaadhikara Sangharsh Parishath (JSP) in exercise of the powers vested in me under the Karnataka Lokayukta Act. It is not appealable to the Lokayukta. Tomorrow I will write to the SP to continue the probe and submit the report to me. I have not mentioned any individual’s name. We are investigating the truth and one should not interfere in investigation,” Justice Adi said.
Justice Adi had on June 23 directed the Superintendent of Police, Lokayukta (City wing) Sonia Narang to look into yet another (the third such) complaint of corruption in the Lokayukta and submit the report to him by July 5.
“I had received a serious complaint of internal corruption by Janaadhikara JSP. I directed the SP, who was already apprised of the scam to discreetly probe into the charges without any fear or influence and submit the report to me by July 5. This is not a parallel investigation to the one ordered by the Lokayukta. It is an internal probe ordered by me to clean the institution based on a complaint,” said the Upalokayukta.
Justice Adi added that he was kept in the dark about Mr. Krishnamurthy’s complaint and the subsequent letter written by the SP to the Registrar and that he came to know of it only through media reports.
“I was upset that though Mr. Krishnamurthy had complained to the SP in the first week of May about corrupt practices in the Lokayukta and she had written to the Registrar I was not even informed about it. I got to know of the complaint through the newspapers on May 20, when Lokayukta and I were in Mysuru. I asked Justice Rao about the complaint and he said that he will look at it after he reached Bengaluru. I even wrote to the Resgistrar, Lokayukta to send me a copy of the complaint but I was kept in the dark till last week, when the Parishath wrote to me. I was waiting for the Lokayukta to initiate the probe on the earlier complaints,” said Justice Adi.
The Upalokayukta said that much before Mr. Krishnamurthy’s complaint he had spoken to the Additional Director General of Police (Lokayukta) P.S. Meena to clean up the internal mess.
“There were rumours and some scattered information on corruption in the Lokayukta, I felt bad that the name of the institution is being tarnished and people may lose their faith in it,” said the Upalokayukta.
He however categorcally contradicted media reports about the differences between him and Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao. “We are cordial to each other and there is nothing personal between us. We are both concerned about the image of the Lokayukta,” he added.
23 verbal complaints on corruption!
Lokayukta Superintendent of Police Sonia Narang has told DC that the investigation she has led on the basis of 23 complaints she has received so far - all verbal - on the alleged corruption racket which allegedly implicates the Lokayukta's son and others within the institution has revealed that over 100 government officials were targeted over the last six months and that they were threatened with the Lokayukta raid if they did not pay up.
Ms Narang said that they were investigating the complaints when the probe was handed over to the Central Crime Branch. Sources close to the investigation said that officials were allegedly targeted for amounts ranging from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1 crore. This could be a Rs 100 crore scam, they said.
