SIT Arrests 12 in Valmiki Corporation Fraud, Recovers Rs 85 Crore

Bengaluru: The ongoing investigation by sleuths of Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, an undertaking of the State Government, into fraudulent transactions in its bank account have arrested 12 persons, so far, stated Chief Minister Siddaramaiah while cash recovery of about Rs 85 crore has been done out of the alleged Rs 89 crore fraud from arrested persons. The SIT was constituted by the State Government to investigate the fraudulent transactions on May 30 this year.

At a press conference in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah denied his Government having a role in the alleged fraudulent transactions in the accounts of Valmiki Corporation and blamed the gross negligence of Union Bank of India led to the fraud of Rs 89 crore in the accounts of Valmiki Corporation which had its account in Union Bank of India, Vasanthnagar branch of Bengaluru city.

To a query on the resignation of Nagendra as a Minister for Scheduled Tribes Welfare, Siddaramaiah said he resigned ‘voluntarily’ since his name was mentioned in the death note of Accounts Superintendent Chandrashekaran of Valmiki Corporation and also during a conversation clip between accused persons.

Siddaramaiah stated owing to failure to verify genuineness of signatures of the signatories and gross negligence of Union Bank of India, a total of Rs 89.63 crore was fraudulently transferred from the account of Valmiki Corporation to multiple accounts all of which maintained accounts of Hyderabad based Ratnakara Bank Limited, a Cooperative Bank and had its sequential account numbers.

He said the case is also being investigated by sleuths of Central Bureau of Investigation on the complaint from Union Bank of India officials over the alleged fraudulent transactions while officials of Enforcement Directorate (ED) have started its investigation filing a suo moto case. The Chief Minister said he has no report on the progress of investigation by CBI into fraudulent bank transactions in the accounts of Valmiki Corporation.

The ED has arrested former minister for Scheduled Tribes Welfare B. Nagendra since he headed the Ministry under whom Valmiki Corporation functioned. The Chairman of Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Basanagouda Daddal has been questioned by ED officials over the fraud. As many as 19 locations have been raided by ED including the residences of B. Nagendra and Basanagouda Daddal.

In the meantime, the Chief Minister disclosed the names of the arrested by SIT sleuths in the fraud case identified as Satyanarayana Verma, Padmanabha, Nageshwar Rao, Chandramohan, Jagadeesh among others.Out of 12 arrested, 9 are behind the bars and 3 in police custody.

The Chief Minister pointed fingers at the Union Bank of India for the fraudulent transactions and after the alleged fraud came to the notice of the Union Bank of India officials, its Deputy Manager Mahesh filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation after approval from top Bank officials against their Bank officials. A complaint was filed against Suchismitha Raul, Chief Manager of Union Bank of India, M.G. Road branch in Bengaluru city, Deepa, Deputy Manager and Krishanmurthy, a Credit Officer.

He also read out an observation made by Union Bank of India officials against Deepa in which they stated “There is a need to examine the role of Deepa in the fraud committed.” A similar observation was also made against Suchismitha Raul by the Bank.

The Chief Minister said R. Ashok, Leader of Opposition R. Ashok has no idea of the Union Bank of India's role in the fraud and Union Bank of India is a nationalised bank.