Valmiki Corporation Scam: ED Detains Former Minister B. Nagendra In Money Laundering Case

The Enforcement Directorate has detained Karnataka former minister B. Nagendra in the money laundering case yesterday. The Ballari Rural assembly constituency MLA from Congress was taken into custody today morning in Bengaluru to probe the alleged scam in the Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, where funds worth 187 crore rupees were transferred illegally. It is alleged that 88.62 crore rupees out of the total amount was moved to various accounts held by IT companies and a Hyderabad-based cooperative bank among others.

ED conducted raids at 20 locations in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana yesterday as part of the registered case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.



Subsequent to this the former minister was taken to the ED office for interrogation today. 

The incident came to light when the Corporation’s Accounts Superintendent P Chandrasekharan disclosed in his suicide note that the now-suspended Managing Director of the Cooperative, accounts officer and Union Bank of India Chief Manager was involved in the transfer of funds from the Cooperative and that the former Minister for Tribal Affairs B Nagendra had given oral orders. The state government has set up a Special Investigation Team under Additional Director General of Police Manish Kharbikar of CID to probe the issue. Union Bank has referred the matter to CBI.