Karnataka State Police housing scam: 3 senior IPS officers figure in complaint
Bengaluru: Susant Mahapatra, the Chairman of the Karnataka State Police Housing and Infrastructure development Corporation Limited (KSPH&IDCL), has filed a complaint with three senior IPS officers - M N Reddi, Praveen Sood and Seemant Kumar Singh - in the Lokayukta, accusing them of flouting norms in allotting various projects to private constructors.
Reddi is now the city Police Commissioner, while Praveen Sood is ADGP (KSRP) and Seemant Kumar Singh is the Managing Director of KSPH&IDCL.
In his complaint to Upalokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi, Mahapatra has alleged that when Reddi was the MD of KSPH&IDCL in 2012, he violated the norms under the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act. “In the 139th meeting of Board of Directors of the KSPH&IDCL held in May, 2012, Reddi has given approval for packages which are beyond his permissible limits. He had the power only to give sanction for projects that were less than Rs 5 crore. But, Reddi has permitted for packages more than Rs 50 crore, which in fact requires government approval,” Mahapatra had stated.
“This has been done to eliminate small players and big players have bagged the tenders. Moreover, he has allotted a tender to Pearl Constructions, which is blacklisted by the CBI, and has been in CBI radar for a Rs 2,025-crore scam. Also, an Indian settled in Australia was offered the tenders, which is not permitted,” Mahapatra alleged, adding that various packages worth several hundreds crores of rupees were allotted illegally by Reddi.
He said that complaint was filed against Sood and Singh, who were transferred to KSPH&IDCL later, as they were equally responsible for the irregularities. He also said that he approached the Lokayukta, as no action was taken by the Finance and Home departments even after he had filed a complaint.
When contacted, Upalokayukta Justice Adi said that he had asked Mahapatra to provide several other documents and will pursue the case further once he gets them.
