The Gangavathi rural police on 6 May booked a civil contractor – who had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over corruption and extortion in the Karnataka government – for criminal breach of trust, news agency PTI reported.
Yerriswami Kuntoji had approached the media earlier this month, saying that government officials were demanding 40 percent commission on public works he had undertaken.
"Now, D Mohan, the Executive Officer of Karatgi Taluk panchayat, has registered a case fake case against me saying there were irregularities. This started after the gram panchayat changed a few months ago, when they paid me Rs 4.8 lakhs, whereas I had supplied material worth Rs 12 lakhs."Yerriswami Kuntoji
They threatened me with dire repercussions if I did not comply to their demands, Kuntoji alleged.
Mohan filed a complaint under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the contractor, accusing his Vijayalakshmi Enterprises of making unidentifiable payments to one Vishnu Kumar Naik – the official appointed to supervise Yerriswami's quality of work.
The company was tasked with providing the material for the solid waste disposal unit, under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the concerned payment was allegedly made through e-payment app PhonePe.
This is not the first time state officials from Bharatiya Janata Party officials from Karnataka have been accused of corruption. In April, contractor Santhosh Patil, who had accused the then Karnataka Rural Development & Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister KS Eshwarappa of corruption, was found dead.
Before allegedly committing suicude, Patil had accused Eshwarappa of asking for a bribe of 40 percent of the total cost of a civil project.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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