New government in Karnataka sets up SITs to probe civic works, Bitcoin scam

The alleged 40% bribery for civic contracts was another major issue that was widely debated in 2021. The contractors went after the BJP government, which inadvertently helped the Congress during the Assembly elections.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR

It’s raining investigations in Karnataka, with the constitution of five special investigation teams (SIT) and a commission headed by a retired Judge this year after the new Congress government took over the helm in May. 

It all began with the State government setting up a SIT to probe the Bitcoin scam that rocked Karnataka between 2020 and 2021 when the BJP government was ruling Karnataka. After allegations of the involvement of police officers and politicos in the scam surfaced when Congress was in Opposition, the party had promised to investigate the scam. In July, the SIT was formed. 

The alleged 40% bribery for civic contracts was another major issue that was widely debated in 2021. The contractors went after the BJP government, which inadvertently helped the Congress during the Assembly elections. The new government formed four SITs and the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission in August to probe the allegations. These SITs headed by IAS officers conducted investigations into civic works executed under Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) between 2019-20 and 2022-23 for four months.  This irked the contractors as the formation of SITs further stalled their payments which were pending for the past three years. 

High Court’s intervention

The High Court (HC) in December found merit in the petition of the contractors and stayed all the investigations, forcing the government to wind up the SITs and handing over the same to Justice Nagamohan Das. The retired judge will now be probing works executed under the Public Works Department, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Water Resources Department, Minor Irrigation Department, including BBMP and Bangalore Development Authority. The term of the commission has been extended till May 2024. 

Despite four months of investigation into civic works, the outcome was bleak, with only one SIT that probed road infrastructure work submitting an interim report. IAS officer Amlan Aditya Biswas submitted an over 400-page report to the government in December. According to sources, he has flagged impropriety in the works. 

Probe into Bitcoin scam

Another major investigation which is underway is the Bitcoin probe. The SIT under the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Manish Karbikar has gathered information about the scam even as the team is speaking with hacker Srikrishna Ramesh aka Sriki.

So far, the team has questioned Central Crime Branch police officers and issued a letter to Director General of Prisons, Malini Krishnamoorthy seeking details of prison officials who were on duty when Sriki was kept in central prison. According to sources, the investigation has now gained momentum.