Audit reveals Rs 61-lakh salary scam by Bengaluru civic official

Bengaluru: A major financial irregularity involving the misuse of erstwhile BBMP funds came to light during a recent internal audit. The audit report revealed fraudulent salary payments amounting to Rs 61,49,972 generated by Ananda Murthy, a second division assistant deployed as drawing and disbursing officer (DDO), and others.

A complaint was filed against Murthy and others at Ashok Nagar police station on Nov 29 by the joint commissioner (zone 2) and in-charge deputy commissioner (administration) of Bengaluru Central city corporation (BCCC), Hemanth Sharan J.


Sharan informed police that after the Greater Bengaluru Authority's (GBA) BCCC came into existence with effect from Sept 2, the corporation — in an order issued on Nov 28 — directed legal action against those who misused and caused loss to corporation funds.

Accordingly, deputy controller of finance (DCF) KT Vijayalakshmi submitted a report on Nov 29, mentioning that payments in the form of salaries and allowances under the jurisdiction of Chickpet assembly constituency have been included under BCCC from Sept 2. Chickpet revenue division comprises Hombegowda Nagar and Kempegowda Nagar assistant revenue divisions.

The salaries and allowances of officers/staff of the revenue division are managed by the Chickpet revenue officer, who acts as DDO. The DDO is responsible for generating, verifying, and confirming the salary and other payment bills every month, and sending them to the DCF for payment. The salary bills for Oct and Nov 2025 were sent to the DCF's office. But during verification, the DCF found discrepancies in the bills submitted by Murthy, deployed at the executive engineer's office, Bommanahalli, as officer on duty (OOD) from Chickpet revenue division.

His legitimate monthly salary was Rs 73,905, but a bill amounting to Rs 10,19,538 was generated, approved, and sent for payment. A sum of Rs 9,46,443 was marked as ‘other allowances' without authorisation. Further scrutiny revealed that similar irregular payments totalling Rs 61,49,972 had been processed earlier.

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