Two more FIRs against MLA’s son, others

BENGALURU: Lokayukta police probing the case of alleged corruption booked against BJP MLA from Channagiri Madal Virupakshappa and his son Prashanth Kumar MV have registered two more FIRs against Prashanth and others under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The first FIR was registered on March 2, the day Lokayukta police trapped Prashanth with alleged bribe of Rs 40 lakh. Two more were registered on March 8 on the basis of a complaint filed by police inspector BG Kumaraswamy, who had on trapped Prashanth at Virupakshappa’s Crescent Road office.
According to the fresh FIRs, unaccounted cash worth Rs 1.5 crore was recovered from different persons who had come to meet Prashanth. “There is a need to probe the root of the cash seized,” the FIRs read.
Prashanth is named as accused in the fresh FIRs. One of the March 8 FIRs refers to Rs 60 lakh seized during the trap operation. It names S Surendra, 32, (accountant at Virupakshappa’s office), and private persons N Siddesh, 28, of Bheemasandra in Chitradurga, S Albert Nicholas, 51, of Neelasandra, Gangadhar CH, 45, of Devaraj Ursnagar, Deepak Jadhav, manager of Karnataka Aromas, and others as suspects.
According to this FIR, “During the trap incident, we seized Rs 60 lakh unaccounted cash from Siddesh. We suspect illegal monetary transactions took place between Prashanth, Siddesh and Surendra. Also, we suspect Siddesh has illegally owned properties belonging to Prashanth.”
The other FIR too explains how unaccounted cash was founded on private persons when Lokayukta trapped Prashanth. “Two persons from Karnataka Aromas, Albert Nicholas and Gangadhar, were carrying Rs 45 lakh each and on questioning, they said the Rs 90 lakh sum was the commission meant for Prashanth in connection with tenders. Despite knowing it was a bribe amount, the accused cooperated with the prime accused...,” it read.