ACB to seek details of disproportionate assets

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) will seek details from Income Tax Department on
the disproportionate assets found in the possession of Public Works Department
chief engineers S.C. Jayachandra and T.N. Chikkarayappa.
ACB Inspector General of Police M.A. Saleem told The Hindu that they are keen to
pursue cases against the two officials on the basis of information about unacco
unted income coming from I-Tax department since the money recovered from their p
remises could be more than their known sources of income.
Incidentally, Mr. Jayachandra had run into trouble when Lokayukta sleuths had se
arched his premises in 2008 on the charge of disproportionate income. The govern
ment is yet to give permission for prosecution.
Gold and cash seizures go up
Meanwhile, the search of premises of the two officials, contractor Ramalingam, S
ibi Chakravarthy of Kannan Borewells and banker Umashankar continued for the thi
rd day on Friday. The amount of unaccounted cash and gold has gone up. The I-T s
earch, which officials say was in the offing for some time, comes when the State
government has finalised tenders for execution of road works worth about Rs. 3,
500 crore under the State Highway Development Project (SHDP).
Of the over Rs. 6 crore currency seized, the department said that nearly Rs. 5.7
crore was in new Rs. 2,000 currency. About Rs. 90 lakh is in the demonetised Rs
. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency. Sleuths have seized about seven kilos of bullion,
suspected to have been purchased after demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 c
urrency, nearly nine kilos of gold jewellery
together worth about Rs. 5 crore, a
n I-T department note said. Several high-end cars too have been seized.
Cash seized
In two separate incidents, new Rs. 2,000 notes, being carried without documents,
were seized. Three persons were caught with Rs. 71 lakh in Bailoor village, whi
le three others were caught in Chikkamagaluru with Rs. 46 lakh.