The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has detained Manjula, the wife of former Karnataka Minister B Nagendra. She has been brought to the ED’s regional office in Bengaluru.
Earlier, a Bengaluru court granted judicial custody to former Karnataka Minister B Nagendra in connection with the alleged Valmiki Corporation Scam until July 18.
The ED arrested Nagendra in relation to the alleged multi-crore scam case. Following the arrest, he was presented before the court in Bengaluru.
The ED detained the former Karnataka Minister after conducting raids at various locations linked to him and MLA Basanagouda Daddal concerning the alleged embezzlement of funds in the Valmiki Development Corporation.
The state government has faced growing protests from the BJP, which has alleged a major scam within the corporation. However, the state government denied any wrongdoing earlier this week.
“There is no scam. All scams were created by the BJP during their tenure. BJP is the father of scams. Now we are trying to clean up everything, and they cannot digest it as their names will come out,” said Deputy CM DK Shivakumar on Monday.
The alleged corruption case involving the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation came to light after an official of the corporation died by suicide, leaving a note alleging multi-crore corruption within the corporation.
The official, identified as Chandrasekaran (45), a resident of the Kenchappa colony in Vinobanagar, allegedly died by suicide on May 26, leaving a note alleging multi-crore corruption within the corporation. Chandrasekaran was a superintendent with the MVDC and was posted at its Bengaluru office.
In a six-page suicide note recovered by police, Chandrasekaran named three officials and alleged corruption worth crores within the corporation, demanding action against the named officials. On June 6, Nagendra announced that he had voluntarily decided to resign while an investigation was ongoing regarding the allegations of illegal money transfers from Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Ltd. The former Karnataka Minister dismissed all allegations against him and expressed confidence that he would be cleared after the investigation.
