Karnataka Lokayukta office: Scamsters scoot

Bengaluru: All Lokayukta officials, allegedly linked to the in-house extortion racket have either gone underground, switching off their phones or have left the country.

This includes Joint commissioner and public relations officer Syed Riyaz Ahmed, who is said to have gone on Umrah to Mecca, and H.R. Deshpande, the Lokayukta registrar who is on leave for 17 days, starting last Wednesday.  

Another member of the extortion racket, allegedly operating from within the Lokayukta premises, V. Bhaskar alias Nivarana Bhaskar alias 420 Bhaskar, (as his mobile number ended with 420) has switched off his mobile phone. Other alleged members of the extortion gang included Hotte Krishna, Nagaraj (personal secretary to a minister) and one Narasimharao have gone underground.

Lokayukta's son Ashwin Rao is not responding to calls and DC learned that his counsel is seeking to clarify the status of the FIR lodged against Ashwin by the Lokayukta police despite a high court order that stalled in-house investigations on the same day. Barring BSNL, most of the SIM cards, which were used by the alleged extortion racketeers in the Lokayukta, were provided by private mobile phone service providers without proper customer verification.