JOIN USAnti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials on Thursday searched the premises of T N Chikkarayappa and S C Jayachandra, the two officials suspended by the government after the Income Tax Department found a huge stash of new banknotes in their homes earlier this month.
The ACB said it seized several “incriminating” documents from the possession of Chikkarayappa, the managing director of Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd, and Jayachandra, the chief project officer of State Highway Development Project. The searches were conducted simultaneously on nine premises in Bengaluru and Kolar. The houses of their relatives were also raided.
An official said that some additional documents pertaining to the properties, in addition to the seizure made by the Income Tax Department, were recovered from the raided premises. “The searches are going on, and details of the seizures will be known in a day or two. Bank lockers and other property documents will have to be examined,” an official said.
This is not the first time that Jayachandra was raided for having amassed illegal wealth. The Lokayukta police had raided him in 2008 when he was chief engineer at Hemavathy Irrigation Project in Gorur, Hassan district. The Lokayukta police had prepared a final report and the investigation concluded that he possessed Rs 2.02 crore worth of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income on the date of the raid. The state government, however, is yet to give the Lokayukta police the Prosecution Sanction Order to file the charge sheet against Jayachandra.
There were similar complaints with the Lokayukta against Chikkarayappa. What’s more, the government disregarded the adverse reports against him by giving him a key post in the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).