Karnataka ex-mantri kingpin of Valmiki corporation scam: ED

NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said a special PMLA court for MPs and MLAs in Bengaluru has taken cognizance of its chargesheet filed against former Karnataka tribal affairs minister B Nagendra in the alleged Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki ST Development Corporation scam.
The agency said among the charges filed against Nagendra, he has been found to be the prime accused and the mastermind of the scam.The ED accused him of diverting ₹20 crore from ST welfare funds for use during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Nagendra, the agency said, allegedly orchestrated the scam with the help of 24 others, including key associates like Satyanarayana Varma, Etakari Satyanarayana, JG Padmanabha, Nageshwar Rao, Nekkenti Nagaraj, and Vijay Kumar Gowda. ED’s probe is based on a CBI FIR that was registered after an employees of the Valmiki Development Corporation, Chandrashekhar, committed suicide in May.
The CBI in its case has alleged that around ₹89.6 crore was diverted from the accounts of the corporation into fake accounts across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and later laundered through shell entities.
The ED said, “Investigation revealed that under the influence of Nagendra, The account of the corporation was moved to the MG Road Branch without any proper authorisation, where ₹187 crore including ₹43.33 crore from the state treasury under the Ganga Kalyana Scheme, were deposited without following proper procedures and in violation of govt guidelines.”
“These funds were subsequently siphoned off through multiple shell accounts and converted into cash and bullion,” it said. In another serious charge, the agency said, “₹20.19 crore of the diverted funds were used to support a candidate contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Bellary constituency, as well as for the personal expenses of B Nagendra.” The ED said it has corroborated evidence of these expenditures through documents seized from the minister’s premises and other associates during search and seizure operations. “Details of the election expenses were retrieved from the mobile-phone of Vijay Kumar Gowda, who handled the cash on Nagendra’s instructions,” it said.