Karnataka Lokayukta’s official residence does not have a visitor’s log book
Bengaluru: Lokayukta’s official residence does not reportedly have a visitor’s log book. “No visitor’s entry is recorded in the Lokayukta’s residence because there is no log book, unlike other high profile offices and official residences, which also double up as their home office and visitors entry is registered along with their names, designation, entry and exit time and the purpose of their visit. There is no way to find out or prove who visits the Lokayukta’s residence,” said an official source.
Lokayukta’s residence near Judicial Academy at Shivanand Circle is allegedly at the heart of the corruption scam, where his son Ashwin Rao used to allegedly call government officers to pay bribes to avoid Lokayukta raids. “All transactions were in cash and there’s no way to establish who actually visited him and when,” the officer added.
It may be recalled that former CBI director Ranjit Sinha was in a spot after the visitors’ log book in his official residence showed frequent visits by some of the accused in the 2G and coal block cases among others. The Supreme Court had taken serious note of this and had asked him to explain.
From the time Justice Bhaskar Rao took over as the Lokayukta in February 2013, his official appointments and meetings were planned and confirmed by the Joint Commissioner, Public Relations Office, Syed Riyaz, unlike Justice Rao’s predecessors, who were in constant touch with their secretariat in the adjacent office and all appointments were routed through them.
“Former lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde would watch on the CCTV camera inside his office and call his visitors, who were found waiting in the lounge.
“There were people from the villages and districts, who had direct access to the Lokayukta and could meet him without any hurdle. But in the last two years the Lokayukta’s secretariat was over taken by the PRO and the communication between the two offices of the Lokayukta also became distant,” said an official source.
