Karnataka govt officer pays with his life for exposing scams

BANGALORE: A senior Karnataka government official who blew the lid off several scams in state housing cooperative societies succumbed to his injuries five days after he was attacked near a Bangalore hotel.
The whistleblower, S P Mahantesh, was deputy director with the state's audit watchdog - Directorate of Cooperative Audit.
Mahantesh, 48, who was on life support, died of an heart attack on Sunday, hospital sources said.He had suffered serious head injuries.
Police are still scrambling for clues even five days after the attack. They also made no effort to locate a lone eyewitness in the case. They had pinned hope on Mahantesh's statement after his recovery. After his death triggered outrage in Bangalore, state home minister R Ashoka set up four teams headed by a senior IPS officer and promised an early breakthrough.
Mahantesh was attacked in front of the residence of the Karnataka high court chief justice on Palace Road on Tuesday. He was on his way home after an audit of a credit cooperative society in Sahakarnagar. The attackers came in a car and hit him on the head with a blunt object. He lost consciousness and lay sprawled on the road. Security guards of a nearby hotel rushed him to hospital.
His family members said Mahantesh had no enmity with anyone and the attack had to with his work - auditing Bangalore's notorious cooperative societies which are embroiled in irregularities. Whistleblowers confirmed the officer had helped crack scams in many housing societies.
Chief minister Sadananda Gowda was heckled by Mahantesh's family and friends when he went to offer condolences. The chief minister promised to arrest the assailants even as mourners raised slogans against the shoddy probe.