Three BBMP staffers, 2 others siphon off Rs 4.2 crore from agency

BENGALURU: Three BBMP employees allegedly colluded with two individuals to divert the civic agency’s payment of Rs 4.2 crore to a contractor towards execution of road work in KR Puram, according to an FIR registered with the Bengaluru Metropolitan Task Force police station. The amount was allegedly transferred to the account of an unrelated individual.
Acting on the complaint lodged on February 12 by BBMP chief accounts officer Govindaraju R, BMTF police have named accounts superintendents Anitha M, 48, and Ramamurthy R, 50, second division clerk Raghavendra, and two others, Gangadhar, 38, and Nagesh, 36, as the accused. All three Palike employees worked in the agency’s headquarters and have been suspended.
The complaint was lodged in the wake of the letter from contractor CG Chandrappa, director, CGC Infra Project Pvt Ltd, to BBMP commissioner BH Anil Kumar.
Chandrappa’s firm had won the tender for executing road improvement and resurfacing work worth Rs 4.4 crore in several localities of KR Puram. Two work orders were issued to the firm on September 15, 2018.
“I finished the project in time and as per the standards and specification mentioned in the tender,” said Chandrappa. He had provided a cancelled cheque of his firm to the BBMP executive engineer for transfer of payments.
“After audit and deduction, the BBMP executive engineer said I would receive Rs 4.2 crore towards the two work orders,” Chandrappa said.
“I was to get the money earlier this February. But I got suspicious when it didn’t arrive in my account for over a week. I went to the head office and learnt the money for the work had been transferred to another account in Janatha Seva Cooperative Bank, Vijayanagar,” said Chandrappa.
A senior BBMP official said the accused opened an account in the bank using fake documents and transferred the money to it instead of the account of Chandrappa’s firm.
BMTF police said they have arrested the four accused. A special team headed by Obalesh, SP, is investigating the case. “We have recovered Rs 3.9 crore and it will be handed over to Chandrappa. We will recover the remaining amount soon,” said mayor M Goutham Kumar.