The day after the arrest of Ashwin Rao, son of controversial lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao, by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with the extortion racket, a lokayukta court in Bengaluru on Tuesday has remanded him in SIT custody for ten days.
lokayukta Court Judge GV Bopaiah pronounced the judgment sending Ashwin Rao to SIT custody till August 6, in connection with the bribery scandal which shook the nation. Ashwin, the main accused in the alleged extortion racket in lokayukta office where Government officials were targetted. He was picked up by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which has taken over the probe into the scam in Hyderabad on Monday. He was brought to the city and produced before special lokayukta Court.
Ashwin is the main accused in a FIR filed by lokayukta Superintendent of Police Sonia Narang on a complaint received from Benguluru Urban Engineer Krishnamurthy, who had alleged that he was asked to pay `1 crore bribe for avoiding raid on his properties. The second accused in the case, lokayukta PRO Riyaz, was on Monday remanded to SIT custody. Besides these arrests the SIT had arrested three more people who were acting as agents in extortion.
Meanwhile, Upa-lokayukta Subash B Adi has filed another FIR based on a complaint received from a Haveri ZP Executive Engineer alleging that Ashwin Rao had demanded `35 lakhs bribe to avoid raids while he was working as Engineer in Tunga Bhadra Upper Canal project. In the FIR Ashwin Rao was alleged as the main accused while his father Justice Rao as the second.
After bribery scandal the image of lokayukta institution took a beating and there is a tremendous pressure on lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao to quit on moral grounds. The lokayukta Bhaskar Rao has not attended the office for the past two days and according to sources he was looking at finding some lawyers for an anticipatory bail in case the SIT wanted him to be arrested. The Karnataka lokayukta police had on July 1 registered an FIR against Ashwin Rao, who is accused of being a part of an extortion racket. The members of the racket used to contact contractors and builders posing as lokayukta officials and demand money.
In another development, the Karnataka Bar Council has urged the SIT to arrest Karnataka lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao in the wake of his son Ashwin’s detention.
“We have been demanding the arrest of Ashwin since the last one month and finally it has happened. Justice Rao should also be arrested for corruption charges. Taking bribe through others is also a crime,” said Karnataka Bar Council Chairman P P Hegde.