Under the terms of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has carried out search and seizure operations in the case of KY Nanje Gowda, MLA, Malur, Karnataka, and his cronies. In relation to a case involving the unauthorized allocation of government land valued at Rs. 150 crore, search operations were carried out.
Based on a formal complaint against Nanje Gowda & Ors filed by Masti PS, Kolar District, Karnataka, under many provisions of the Indian Penal Code 1860, the ED opened an inquiry. Nanje Gowda was the Chairman of the Land Grant Committee the other accused were the Members of the Committee and one accused V Nagraj was holding the office of Tahsildar, Malur during the relevant period.
14 locations connected to the accused were searched during the search operation, and as of right now, more than Rs. 25 lakhs in cash, records pertaining to real estate and mobile homes valued at over Rs. 50 crore, numerous damning papers, and digital data have been found or confiscated.
During the search, it was discovered that KY Nanjegowda, the Malur MLA and Chairman of the Malur Land Grant Committee, had abused his position of authority by giving away about 80 acres of land worth about Rs. 150 crore to a number of illegal beneficiaries under four meetings in a single month by creating a number of fictitious and bogus documents. This was done in collusion with other committee members and revenue officials. Later, the same was cancelled in accordance with the Regional Commissioner’s Inspection report at the time.
It was also discovered throughout the search and seizure procedure that the unlawful assignment of land was carried out by falsifying documents and flagrantly breaking rules. Another fraud pertaining to current hiring at the KolarChikkaballapura District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Ltd. (KOMUL) was discovered during the search operation.
It was seen that the KOMUL recruitment committee, which was led by KY Nanje Gowda and included four other individuals, rigged the interview process entirely. The Board decided that the chosen applicants would get orders and be sent to training without disclosing the outcome to the public.
Directors of the KOMUL and members of the recruitment committee acknowledged during the search and seizure operation that seats were auctioned for between Rs. 20 and Rs. 30 lakhs each. Additionally, it has been learned that a few politicians have nominated their own candidates for consideration; thirty of these nominations were accepted.
Additionally, it was observed that KY Nanje Gowda, who is in charge of the recruiting committee, openly participates in the selling of seats and tampers with interview scores. Additional research is currently being conducted.
