Bengaluru: The alleged coterie of scamsters in the Lokayukta corruption scandal also comprised a TV journalist Srinivasa Gowda and his associate Shankare Gowda, said an official source.
Srinivasa lost his service after the scandal came to fore. The duo along with Lokayukta’s son Ashwin Y, Joint Commissioner (Public Relations Office) Syed Riyaz, Hotte Krishna, V Bhaskar alias 420 Bhaskar and Krishna Rao used to allegedly call up government employees, especially those who were on the verge of retirement, demanding bribes to prevent anti corruption raids by the Lokayukta.
“The Gowda duo would dig up information under the Right to Information Act on the government funds, which may have been recently released to a particular department and pass the information to the rest of the gang, who would threaten the officer that he has misused the funds and would be raided under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act if he didn’t pay them a bribe. Chief engineers of various departments were on their hit list. In fact, they called a chief engineer and tried to blackmail him and he told them that he was newly posted to the department 10 days ago,” said an official source.
Meanwhile, a seven-year-old criminal case, of forgery in land dealings in undivided Andhra Pradesh has resurfaced to haunt Ashwin. He along with two others - Srinivas and Shyam Sunder - was arrested in 2008 and later chargesheeted on charges of forging land documents of 81 acres of patta land in Mominpet village in Ranga Reddy district. He was later enlarged on bail and is currently facing trial in a court in Vikarabad.
Ashwin’s ‘secretary’ gets candid on TV
V. Bhaskar, alias Nivarana Bhaskar, alias 420 Bhaskar, said to be involved in the extortion racket that existed in the Lokayukta office was seen giving an interview in a regional news channel on Friday regarding his association with the Lokayukta’s son Ashwin Rao. He alleged that Ashwin was introduced to him by Upalokayukta Justice Subhash Adi’s son-in-law Gangadhar Swamy.
He claimed he was an RTI activist, a self-styled journalist and a tout and had worked for two decades in BBMP office without much gain. He said BBMP officials had got a complaint registered against him at the Ulsoorgate police station. The government officials alleged that Bhaskar had filed RTI applications on them in order to extort money. He also posed as a journalist working with a media company called IBC for some time and used to frequent Bangalore Press Club.
He said things started changing from the day he got introduced to Ashwin. He claimed that Ashwin used to introduce him to others as his ‘secretary’, which helped him gain respect from bureaucrats and other VIPs. Whenever Ashwin visits Lokayukta’s office, he would sit in the chamber of Joint commissioner and public relations Syed Riyaz Ahmed, Bhaskar said. Though Bhaskar refused to divulge about the amount of money extorted from the victims, he said Ashwin’s presence at the office proved beneficial. He said that being Ashwin’s ‘secretary’ helped him set up vintage car business in Hyderabad.
Upalokayukta denies charge
Rubbishing Bhaskar’s allegations, Upalokayukta Justice Subhash Adi said his son-in-law has never met Ashwin Rao and hence the question of introducing him to someone does not arise. He also denied that his son-in-law knew Bhaskar.
