Fifth Metro: Watch the watchmen

Following the allegations, lawyers’ groups, right to information activists and civic associations are demanding that Lokayukta Rao do the honourable thing and step down. But Rao has shown no inclination to do so. On the contrary, son Ashwin moved the Karnataka High Court and procured a stay on the in-house investigation into the corruption charges. The stay came a tad too late for Ashwin’s comfort, though. The lokayukta’s own superintendent of police, Sonia Narang, who had begun investigating the allegations on the UPA lokayukta’s mandate, filed a first information report against Ashwin and three others for extortion, cheating and criminal conspiracy. Narang’s FIR, filed in the nick of time, just before the court order, cited an executive engineer of the public works department who said he was threatened with corruption proceedings unless he paid Rs 1 crore.

Rao’s tenure has been marred by scores of allegations, right from the time of his appointment by former Governor H.R. Bhardwaj. Before that, the office had been lying vacant for over a year for want of a suitable candidate. Then, a lokayukta came and went in a blink because he was found to own a housing plot procured by providing false information. Then came Rao’s appointment in 2013, which gave rise to discontented murmurs as his reputation as chief justice of the Karnataka High Court was allegedly less than spotless. No sooner had he taken over that whispered allegations started doing the rounds about his son’s alleged blackmailing ways, both in the lokayukta office and Rao’s home. The tenure has also been marked by inaction.

The reputation of the lokayukta’s office has spiralled rapidly and steadily downward in the last two years. “For 30 years, five lokayuktas who occupied the office fought against corruption and stood for causes, there was not a whiff of a scandal,” said Justice Santosh Hegde, a former lokayukta, commenting on the current fiasco. “This controversy has dented that image.”

During his tenure as lokayukta, Hegde himself created ripples when he launched a full-scale investigation into illegal iron ore mining in Karnataka. His final report indicted three chief ministers, nine other ministers and a whopping 780 officers for their involvement. The report ultimately claimed the scalp of then Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa of the BJP and banished the infamous Reddy brothers from Bellary, mining magnates who were ministers, to jail.

Hegde’s predecessor, Justice N. Venkatachala, first set the tone for the office, going about redressing grievances of those not getting their pensions on time, or not receiving treatment at government hospitals. The lokayukta spread fear amongst bureaucrats, conducting a series of raids and making public the details of the loot. It was an institution that made corrupt officials quake.

Faced with mounting pressure after the recent scandal, CM Siddaramaiah announced an inquiry by a special investigation team into the scandal. But everybody knows that an SIT has no powers to prosecute the lokayukta. “The ruling Congress and the opposition parties should have together moved a motion in the legislature for the impeachment of the lokayukta for misconduct and misuse of office, there is sufficient evidence in the FIR,” said M.C. Nanaiah, a former Karnataka law minister and a member of the opposition Janata Dal (S). Even if this comes about, impeachment is a long shot. Today, the once-feared lokayukta’s credentials are suspect in the eyes of the public. Conversely, politicians of all affiliations and corrupt government officials are a relieved bunch.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com