ED detains former Karnataka Minister Nagendra's wife in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has detained former Karnataka Minister B Nagendra's wife Manjula. She has been brought to the ED's regional office in Bengaluru.

Earlier, a Bengaluru Court granted judicial custody to former Karnataka Minister B Nagendra in connection with the alleged Valmiki Corporation Scam till July 18.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Nagendra in connection with the alleged multi-crore scam case. Soon after the arrest, he was produced before the Court in Bengaluru.

The ED detained the former Karnataka Minister, followed by raids by the central agency at many places linked to former Karnataka Minister B Nagendra and MLA Basanagouda Daddal in connection with the alleged embezzlement of funds in Valmiki Development Corporation.

The state government has faced increasing protests by the BJP which has alleged a major scam in the corporation. However, the state government earlier this week denied any wrongdoing.

"There is no scam. All scams have been created by the BJP and their tenure. BJP is the father of scams. Now we are trying to clean up everything and they are not able to digest it as their names will come out," said Deputy CM DK Shivakumar on Monday.

The alleged corruption case of Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation came to light after an official of the Corporation died by suicide and left a note containing an allegation of multi-crore corruption in the corporation.

The official identified as Chandrasekaran (45), a resident of the Kenchappa colony in Vinobanagar, allegedly died by suicide on May 26 after leaving a note containing an allegation of multi-crore corruption in the corporation. Chandrasekaran was a superintendent with the MVDC and was posted at its Bengaluru office.

In a six-page suicide note recovered by police, Chandrasekaran mentioned the names of three officials and alleged corruption worth crores in the corporation, demanding action against the named officials.On June 6, Nagendra said that he has voluntarily decided to resign as an investigation is going on over the allegations of illegal money transfer from Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Ltd.The former Karnataka Minister dismissed all the allegations against him and said that he'd come out clean after the investigation. (