Raid on Yelahanka MLA’s houses yield 2.6 kg gold

Bangalore, December 20: The Lokayukta police conducted an early morning raid on the houses and office of Yelahanka MLA S?R Vishwanath on Monday.

The police had registered a case on December 16 after the Special Lokayukta Court directed them to investigate allegations of cheating and acquiring notified land by V Shashidhar through a private complaint in the Special Lokayukta Court. The Lokayukta police have been directed to file a report on January 6, 2012.

The raid, headed by Bangalore Urban Superintendent of Police P K Shivashankar and DySP Girish S, led to a haul of 2.6 kg of gold articles, Rs 14.5 lakh in cash, 11 kg of silver articles and currency of $3,500.

Immovable property

The raid, which began at 6 am, yielded documents pertaining to two apartments in Coffee Board Layout, four buildings in Rajanakunte and Bhuvaneshwari Nagar and agricultural land measuring 65 acres. All the documents pertaining to immovable properties have been seized.

Sources in the Lokayukta said the police raided the MLA’s house in Singanayakanahalli, his office in Yelahanka New Town and an apartment in Hebbal.

Currency and gold

Vishwanath and his wife Vanishree were both present in the house during the raid. Subsequent to the raid, the couple accompanied the police officers to a nearby bank, Raitha Seva Sahakara Bank, where Vanishree is the president and owns two lockers. Here, the police seized currency amounting to about Rs 14.5 lakh and gold weighing about 1.5 kg from the two lockers.

Vehicles

Vishwanath’s house in Singanayakanahalli also had household articles amounting to about Rs 40 lakh. Six vehicles - a Toyota Innova, Toyota Fortuner and four tractors - have also been seized.

Shashidhar, a social activist and former constable, had alleged that Vishwanath has cheated the government in several instances.

In the first instance, the complainant alleged that Vishwanath worked as employee of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from 1985 to April, 2008.

Held two posts at a time

At the same time, he became a Zilla Panchayat member from Hesaraghatta constituency and completed his full term from 2000 to 2005, without even resigning his job at HAL. The complainant said Vishwanath continued to receive salary and other perks from both ZP and HAL.

Vishwanath is also accused of acquiring assets worth more than Rs 70 crore, even though his total salary during his tenure at HAL did not exceed Rs 20 lakh.

Land deal

Vishwanath is also supposed to have purchased two properties in survey Nos 3 and 38 at Sriramanahalli in Hesaraghatta hobli of Bangalore North taluk from GPA holder Sakamma. This land, according to the complaint, belonged to the Karnataka Housing Board and was notified by the government in 2009.

“Knowing well about the nature of the land and its notification, the MLA of the constituency went ahead ignoring all legal implications and got the property registered in his name for a far lesser price than the actual value. He has made the full payment in cash and got the khata transferred thereafter in his name. Around 1.38 acres out of 3.38 acres in survey number 38 was converted from agriculture to residential purpose on June 14, 2011,” the complaint states.

He is also accused of obtaining two residential sites at Kudlu in Anekal taluk where the HAL House Building Co-operative Society formed sites for the benefit of its members, once again violating the Society’s rules.

The other accused in the complaint are Vanishree, Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore Urban M?K Aiyappa, Yelahanka Special Additional Tahsildar Ranganath, Hesarghatta sub-registrar Ravi Kumar and Sakamma.