Corporation officials were honey-trapped: BJP

BENGALURU: Senior BJP functionary and former minister B Sriramulu on Thursday claimed scamsters within Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation honeytrapped govt and bank officials and forced them to misappropriate funds.
Sriramulu, regarded as BJP’s prominent Scheduled Tribe face, said high-end luxury cars, including a Lamborghini, were purchased using money intended for tribal welfare.He alleged that the laundered money was diverted through “hawala” channels and used in various elections, including the Lok Sabha polls.
Former minister Narasimha Naik (Raju Gouda), another BJP ST functionary, said the govt was involved. “We all know that more than Rs 3 crore cannot be transferred without approval of the finance secretary, but on a single day Rs 50 crore was transferred. It is surprising that no one in the govt knew about it,” Naik said.
BJP functionaries say funds in amounts ranging from Rs 4.1 crore to Rs 6 crore were transferred to bank accounts of 16 businesspersons. They demanded the arrest of Congress MLA B Nagendra, who resigned as tribal welfare minister after the scam came to light.