BENGALURU: With pressure mounting from all quarters on the Congress government over the lottery scam, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday decided to take the battle to the Opposition camp by asking the CBI to probe the scam from 2007 when the BJP-JD(S) coalition headed by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy declared Karnataka as “lottery-free state.”
Mr Siddaramaiah lambasted JD(S) patriarch H. D. Deve Gowda and his son and former CM Kumaraswamy before making a formal announcement, questioning why the former PM did not advise his son to ask the CBI to probe an allegation by mine lord and former minister G Janardhan Reddy that he had pocketed a bribe of '150 crore though the allegation was made in the Council. He asked why Mr Deve Gowda, who had once described the CBI as “Chor Bachao Institution”, and leaders of BJP, who termed it as “Congress Bureau of Investigation”, were demanding a CBI probe into every scam.
He told the media at a hurriedly-convened press conference: “We need to know the entire truth in this scam. We need to know who are all involved in this scam since 2007 when lottery was banned in the state. Hence, I have decided to hand over the probe to the CBI. This is a testimony to fact that our government will not want give any scope to anyone to point a finger at us. We are wedded to ethics and principles in life. Therefore, we do not have fear for anything. Let the CBI probe all aspects from 2007, when lottery was banned in the state.” Besides, the Chief Minister said he acted quickly, and did not hesitate to suspend a senior IPS officer, and spoke of the need to probe the entire nexus between the kingpin, police officers and politicians.
“No one can accuse the government of not taking steps to stop this scam. The previous governments did not act, but all those who were at the helm of affairs from 2007 to 2013 are accusing my government of inaction. If previous governments acted in time against these lottery operators, the scam would not have taken place,” he added.
He said “Our police officers are competent. If every case is handed over to the CBI, then of what use is the state police? I want to ask what moral right do Opposition parties have to keep suggesting a CBI probe into every case. We have handed over so many cases to the CBI.
“I want to ask the Opposition how many cases have they handed over to the CBI when they were in power? We do not call up policemen and influence investigations. Maybe the Opposition leaders, when they were in power, called officers not only to influence but also blackmail them.”
The house of Paari Rajan, the main accused in the lottery scam, at KGF (Photo: DC)
Neighbour: No kingpin stays in a 2-room house
Paari Rajan gained notoriety as the kingpin of the inter-state lottery racket as it was due to his arrest that a senior IPS officer was suspended. But why is Rajan’s story being treated like a terror case? Is the lottery business a heinous crime? DC reporter Bellie Thomas who tracked Rajan down to his hometown of Kolar was besieged by neighbours who had one question. “Would a kingpin really stay in a two-bedroom house? Would he travel by train on a daily basis from Kolar to Bengaluru and back, in a train and auto. I feel Rajan is not the kingpin,” asked neighbour Arjunan.
“Is this the real Paari Rajan we knew,” wonder the residents of Bharatnagar at BEML Nagar in Kolar Gold Fields, where the main conduit of the multi-crore scam stayed with his wife and two daughters. But why is Rajan’s involvement in the lottery scam being blown out like a terror case. Is doing lottery business such a heinous crime, asks one of his neighbours.
“I know Paari Rajan for the last 7-8 years as a neighbour. He speaks to me like he speaks to everybody else in the area,” said G. Arjunan, Rajan's neighbour and Taluk Secretary of CITU and CPM in BEML Nagar. “It is true that Rajan was close to police officers, especially seniors. Many of them came to his house to just greet him or have a cup of tea. But does that make him the kingpin,” asked Arjunan.
Rajan guided police officers, who visited Kotilingeshwara temple nearby, and offered them Tirupati ladoos. Rajan moved from Kennedy’s 3rd Lane to Bharatnagar between 2006 and 2007 as the construction of the first floor of his house on a 30x40 sqft plot was still going on. “We heard that he purchased the house for Rs 5 lakh and moved in with his family. Rajan regularly took Kakinada and Brindavan Express trains to visit Bengaluru. If he missed the Kakinada Express, he would board the Brindavan Express. He left home around 10 am in an auto and came back by 10 pm after reaching KGF from Bangarpet” Arjunan said. Rajan used a two-wheeler to move around the town and did not own a car.
“Rajan told us that he worked as a legal consultant for a private company in Bengaluru,” the neighbour said. “Would a kingpin really stay in a two-bedroom house? Would he travel by train every day from Kolar to Bengaluru and back in train and auto? I suspect there is more to this and I feel Rajan is not the kingpin,” Arjunan said.
Officials at the Excise & Lottery Enforcement Police Station in Bangarpet claimed that even Rajan’s wife Manimalai was not aware that her husband was involved in the lottery business. “He has never operated at all in Kolar and there was not even a single complaint against him at either the police station or with the Excise & Lottery Enforcement Department,” said an officer.
As the lottery tickets were from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Bodoland, it appears that Rajan was only a middleman or a broker who worked for lottery agents in different states where lottery business is legal.
