BANGALURU: Lokayukta sleuths recovered unaccounted cash of more than Rs 6 crore from the house of BJP MLA K Madal Virupakshappa’s son Prashanth Madal close on the heels of his arrest after allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh.
Prashanth, the chief accountant of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, was caught red-handed on Thursday evening accepting the bribe from a contractor at the Karnataka Soap and Detergents Limited (KSDL) office.
The MLA is the Chairman of the KSDL, makers of Mysore Sandal soap. The incident is seen as an embarrassment to the ruling BJP in Karnataka, where Assembly elections are due by May.
In the FIR that has been registered, Virupakshappa is the accused number one and his son is the second accused. Within hours of the trap, a team of Lokayukta officials raided his house and recovered the unaccounted cash.
Prashanth was allegedly receiving “first instalment” of the bribe on behalf of his father, according to Lokayukta sources.
Facing the heat, Virupakshappa, MLA from the Channagiri constituency in Davangere district, today tendered his resignation from the post. In his resignation letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, he said there was no “relation” between him and the Lokayukta raid, which he termed as a conspiracy against him and his family.
“Despite that, since an allegation has been levelled against me, I am taking moral responsibility and submitting my resignation from the post of KSDL Chairman,” he said.
Karnataka Lokayukta Justice (retd) BS Patil said today Rs 2.02 crore was recovered from the KSDL office during the search and Rs 6.1 crore from Prashanth’s house.
“Five persons have been apprehended and taken into custody,” he said, adding an FIR has been registered.
Others named in the FIR are office accountant Surendra, Prashanth’s relative Siddesh, and Albert Nicola and Gangadhar, who are field workers in Karnataka Aromas Company.
In his reaction, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the trap was proof that the Lokayukta had been “revived” to check corruption unlike the previous Congress regime, which created a separate anti-corruption bureau apart from the Lokayukta institution to cover up their wrong deeds.