Bengaluru RTI activist held for helping Ashwin extort money

BENGALURU: The Special Investigation Team (SIT), investigating the alleged corruption and extortion racket run by insiders in the Lokayukta, on Sunday arrested one more accused in the case.
Hotte Krishna, 40, an RTI activist, was arrested from Chennai airport on Sunday. Krishna is a close associate of the prime accused, Lokayukta's son Y Bhaskar Rao's son Ashwin Rao, and V Bhaskar.Hotte Krishna is the 11th person to be arrested in connection with the case.
Police said Krishna would get information about engineers working with PWD and BBMP by filing Right to Information Act (RTI) queries, and pass it on to Ashwin who would then make extortion calls.
Krishna was arrested based on information provided by V Bhaskar alias 430 Bhaskar, arrested by the SIT earlier. Investigators are analyzing calls made by Krishna to several government officials and will also investigate whether officials paid the bribe amount or not.
From silk business to extortion
Krishna initially had a silk business but shifted to real estate when he suffered a huge loss. He was a regular visitor to BBMP and BDA offices where he would get tipoffs, identified engineers and filed RTI applications to get information to extort money from corrupt officials.
The racket came to light earlier this year when a complaint was filed by MN Krishnamurthy against Ashwin Rao. In his complaint, Krishnamurthy alleged that Ashwin had demanded Rs 1 crore from him to prevent corruption-related proceedings against him.
The case quickly escalated and calls for the resignation of Y Bhaskar Rao became louder. An SIT was set up with DCP (west) Labhu Ram as the investigating officer. Soon, Lokayukta PRO Syed Riyazutullah and V Bhaskar were arrested.
Four FIRs have been filed in relation to the extortion racket which worked in multiple layers, beginning with identification of officials, gathering information and then extortion. Despite demands for his resignation, Bhaskar Rao is yet to resign. He is currently on leave.
Investigators are analyzing calls made by Hotte Krishna, who was arrested on Sunday, to several government officials. They will also check whether officials paid the bribe amount or not.