Karnataka tribal welfare and sports minister B Nagendra resigned on Thursday over a scandal involving illegal transfer of Rs 89.63 crore of government funds to unknown people in Hyderabad.
The minister, who represents Ballari Rural in the assembly, resigned after the BJP stepped up its campaign seeking his resignation, rejecting arguments in his defence by Congress leaders.
The ruling Congress gave up on him as the BJP sought to amplify it as a major scam under chief minister Siddaramaiah’s watch. The government has formed a special investigation team to probe it, while the CBI has already taken up the matter on a complaint from Union Bank of India (UBI).
The BJP, which led a march to the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru and petitioned the governor about the scam, turned its ire on the CM later in the day, saying the illegal transfer of funds could not have happened without his knowledge. The BJP said it would continue its fight demanding the CM’s resignation.
A group of people allegedly played fraud on the bank and siphoned off the funds, allocated to the Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation for the welfare of scheduled tribe members, between February 21 and May 6 this year. The alleged fraud came to light only on May 24, after the corporation managing director wrote to UBI’s MG Road branch asking it to restore the funds debited to its account as it had not authorised any of the transactions that took place over this period.
In its complaint to the CBI, the bank said it had been able to recover Rs 5 crore while Rs 84.63 crore remained unrecovered from the recipients of funds from illegal transfers.
Last month, P Chandrashekar, an accounts superintendent at the corporation, ended his life leaving a suicide note accusing his higherups of pushing him to open parallel bank account for diversion of funds from the corporation’s primary account. The note revealed the unauthorised transfer of funds and named the corporation’s MD, accounts officer and the bank’s chief manager for the fraud, while alleging that it was done under the oral orders of the minister.
The minister, who submitted his resignation to the CM in the evening, said he had no role while expressing confidence of coming out clean in the case and joining the cabinet again. He said he was resigning to save the government and the party from embarrassment.
