Karnataka’s Lokayukta police have searched an IPS officer’s dwelling after the arrest of a dismissed head constable accused of extorting Rs 4.19 crore from authorities officers by posing as a Lokayukta officer and investing extortion cash in cryptocurrencies.
The IPS officer, Srinath Mahadev Joshi, served as superintendent of police (Bengaluru city-1) with the Lokayukta till June 12. G Ningappa, also referred to as Ningappa Sawanth, the previous head constable from Chitradurga, was allegedly helped by a senior Lokayukta police officer in his extortion actions.
The Lokayukta stated in a press release on Tuesday that 35 circumstances had been registered at varied police stations the place authorities officers, primarily from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the excise division, had been approached for extortion cash. It’s suspected that Ningappa used the names not solely of Lokayukta-attached law enforcement officials but in addition of the Lokayukta and the Upa Lokayukta.
Ningappa is accused of calling authorities officers over the telephone to extort cash starting from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 25 lakh.
Investigations have established that Ningappa collected roughly Rs 58 lakh from excise officers alone. He obtained cash by varied channels, together with UPI transfers, and the cash was subsequently transferred to his cryptocurrency portfolios.
The Lokayukta has found 13 cryptocurrency wallets Ningappa allegedly had. He reportedly invested in Binance and Bitget cryptocurrencies.
How did the con come to mild?
A police officer stated that Ningappa regularly visited the Lokayukta headquarters however went largely unnoticed. He’s stated to have operated for six months and been assembly sure IPS officers who supplied him with confidential data relating to upcoming raids and pending stories about authorities officers accused of wrongdoing.
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Armed with such data, Ningappa purchased a number of SIM playing cards within the identify of presidency officers and used a number of IPS officers’ names on caller IDs. He used the identical SIM playing cards to name his extortion targets.
Lokayukta officers had been watching Ningappa’s assured motion to the IPS officer’s chambers within the headquarters. A police officer stated that Srinath Mahadev Joshi had even visited Ningappa’s dwelling in Chitradurga and was felicitated by his household. “We even have information of Ningappa visiting Joshi’s residence in Bengaluru a number of occasions,” an officer added.
Lokayukta underneath scanner
Ningappa’s arrest has given rise to a number of speculations, particularly on the bureaucratic stage as some officers who spoke to indianexpress.com suspect the involvement of high officers of the anti-corruption company.
Nevertheless, this isn’t the primary time Lokayukta has come underneath public scrutiny. In 2015, Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao needed to step down after his son Ashwin Rao was arrested on costs of working an extortion racket from the company’s places of work. Bhaskar Rao was additionally named as one of many accused within the case. Following the controversy, the then Congress authorities shut the Lokayukta and established the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Nevertheless, the BJP authorities later abolished the ACB and revived the Lokayukta.
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Lokayukta head B S Patil has directed officers to provoke motion towards suspects, sources stated. He has formally requested the federal government to determine a devoted “vigilance wing” throughout the Lokayukta construction. The proposed wing would function underneath a sitting district choose’s supervision, making certain steady oversight of police actions and stopping future misconduct.