BELAGAVI: In a significant development revenue minister V Srinivasa Prasad has volunteered to facilitate a scrutiny of his private secretary, Nagaraj, and certain other officers of his ministry by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe allegations of corruption in Lokayukta, in the wake of charges made against them by JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy in the Assembly on July 1.
Mr Kumaraswamy had charged Mr Nagaraj with passing on the names of senior officials who could be “targeted” for extortion to some sleuths of Lokayukta. He had also levelled charges of corruption against the principal secretary, Mr Basavaraj, and other senior officers of the department.
When contacted, Mr Srinivasa Prasad said on the same day that Mr Kumaraswamy hurled charges against his staff, he met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and discussed the issue. Mr Siddaramaiah told him not to take the issue seriously as Mr Kumaraswamy failed to provide any evidence in support of his charges.
“But, I told Mr Siddaramaiah that since Mr Kumaraswamy has made grave charges against my staff, it will create an impression that I am patronizing them. So, I requested the Chief Minister to subject my staff to probe by SIT in order to establish truth. There is no question of shielding any one. Everything will come to light after the SIT probe,” he added
Meanwhile, official sources said Mr Basavaraj had written to Chief Secretary Mr Kaushik Mukherjee, seeking permission to file a defamation case against Mr Kumaraswamy for making baseless allegation against him. Senior officials, however, prevailed upon him not to act in haste.
