Bangalore. Karnataka’s Congress government has suffered a major setback. Tribal Welfare and Sports Minister B. Nagendra has had to resign from his post in a Rs 187 crore corruption case. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has accepted his resignation. Scheduled Tribe (ST) Welfare Minister B Nagendra, who was facing allegations of illegal money transfer related to a government corporation of the state, resigned from the ministerial post on Thursday. This is being considered a major setback for the one-year-old government led by Siddaramaiah.
Minister Nagendra submitted his resignation letter to the Chief Minister and said that he will come out clean in this case. This illegal money transfer case related to Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation Limited came to light when its Accounts Superintendent Chandrashekhar P committed suicide on May 26. Chandrashekhar had left a suicide note. In this note, illegal transfer of Rs 187 crore from the corporation’s bank account was revealed. Out of this amount, Rs 88.62 crore was allegedly deposited in various accounts of well-known IT companies and a cooperative bank in Hyderabad.
‘I listened to the voice of my conscience and resigned’
Chandrasekhar has mentioned the names of the corporation’s now suspended managing director JH Padmanabha, account officer Parashuram G. Durugannawar, Union Bank of India chief manager Suchismita Rawal in the note. He has said in the note that the minister had given verbal orders for the fund transfer. Four-time MLA Nagendra (52) said, “No one forced me to resign. I have decided to resign on my own by listening to the voice of my conscience, so that people are not misled about me.” Nagendra, who is also in charge of the Ministry of Youth Empowerment and Sports, said that he does not want to embarrass the state’s Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) or Deputy Chief Minister (DK Shivakumar) or the party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge in any way.
‘There should be a fair investigation’
MLA Nagendra, who represents Bellary rural area in the assembly, said, “I am resigning of my own will… SIT (Special Investigation Team) is investigating the case and there should be a fair investigation. If I remain in the ministerial post during the investigation, it may cause problems. In view of this, I have decided to resign.” He has termed the allegations against him as baseless. He said that he will be proved innocent in this case. Earlier, Shivkumar said, “We did not want to embarrass the party, so he (Nagendra) came forward voluntarily and resigned. We did not ask him to resign. We discussed with him…we have discussed with many people. No minister will dare to misuse such a huge amount. It is not easy.”
My name is not mentioned anywhere- Nagendra
Nagendra termed the allegations of involvement of people associated with him in the case as speculation and said, “He (the deceased officer) has not mentioned my name anywhere. Minister means which minister? I was not aware of whatever happened in the corporation and after coming to know, I suspended the Managing Director of the corporation and the investigation is going on.” Nagendra also claimed that the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister did not ask him to resign, rather (they) insisted on not resigning. He said, “The truth will come out through the investigation, after that I will come… If I am proved innocent, it is left to the discretion of the Chief Minister and the high command to take me back in the cabinet.”
Tags: corruption case, Karnataka News
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 6, 2024, 23:49 IST