Samaj Privartan Samudaya has urged the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing into the Lokayukta corruption scandal to file an additional charge-sheet against the former Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao naming him the main accused in this case.
Releasing copies of the letter written to the head of SIT Kamal Pant here on Thursday, samudaya founder-president S.R. Hiremath said that it was a welcome development that the SIT, which had initially made Mr. Rao a witness and not accused in this case, had finally moved to make him accused number seven.
However, considering the role played by Mr. Rao in facilitating corruption in the Lokayukta institution, he should be made the main accused in the case. Mr. Rao promoted Syed Riyaz, who was an ordinary police official, to the rank of Joint Commissioner (Public Relations), despite objections by the Police, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms and the Department of Finance. Later, Mr. Rao’s son, Y. Ashwin, in association with Mr. Riyaz, engineered an extortion scandal.
Mr. Rao is also an accused in four other cases filed by SIT and reports in a section of the media also suspected his role in a scandal allegedly involving Eswar Naik, Additional Director, Department of Employment-Training, he said.
Along with a four-page letter giving the grounds to make Mr. Rao the main accused, the samudaya has also submitted 100 pages of documentary evidence against Mr. Rao to the SIT.
The samudaya would submit more documents related to the Department of Employment-Training scandal, Mr. Hiremath said.
Forest offence cases
Accusing the Forest Department of delaying filing Forest Offence Cases (FOC) against some powerful persons facing charges of encroaching forests land in Chikkamagaluru circle, the samudaya said that Forest Minister B. Ramanath Rai should give serious attention to this issue and take action in the matter.
Releasing documents related to this issue, Mr. Hiremath said that the Forest Department was yet to file cases against V.G. Siddarth Hegde, Shobhana Ranjan and Manjunath who have encroached upon the forest land in Koppa division, even as such cases were filed against 54 others for similar offences.
According to a Forest Department survey, Mr. Hegde had encroached upon 64.39 acres of forest land. Ms. Ranjan and Mr. Manjunath have encroached upon 41 acres and 30.15 acres respectively, he said.
