Former minister and Congress MLA from Ballari Rural B. Nagendra, who was released on bail in the multi-crore Valmiki Corporation scam on Wednesday, has accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials of forcing him to name Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar as the accused in the alleged scam.
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Nagendra, who was the ST Welfare Minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet, was arrested by the ED on July 12, to probe money laundering charges against the minister. The ED had initiated the probe based on the FIRs registered by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the diversion of Rs 89.6 crore (funds) from the Karnataka State Maharishi Valmiki Development Corporation to multiple fake accounts across Andhra and Telangana during the Lok Sabha polls. The scam had come to light after an employee of the corporation, Chandrashekaran, died by suicide and left behind a note detailing the scam.
“The central and state BJP leaders have hatched a conspiracy to destabilise the Congress government in the state. The ED arrested me three months back and has since tried to destabilise the Congress government by trying to frame me and the other leaders. They forced me to name the chief minister and the deputy chief minister as the accused in the case. But I repeatedly refused to do it. I tried to tell them I had no role to play in the scam and the CM and DyCM had nothing to do with it either,” said Nagendra, who was out on bail after spending three months in the Bengaluru Central Jail.
Accusing the BJP of hatching a conspiracy, Nagendra said the scam was a banking fraud and the state government had no role in it.
“It is wrong to accuse the Chief Minister (Finance minister) as there is not a single written order to prove the charge. The bank officials committed the fraud by transferring money to accounts without even verifying the KYC, when the Model Code of Conduct was in place. ED is desperately trying to link us to the scam,” said Nagendra, who thanked the judiciary for granting him bail, slammed the BJP for targeting non-BJP governments and opposition leaders.
“The BJP has not only targeted us. They have targeted Kejriwal, Sisodia and Kavitha among other opposition leaders. In my case, the SIT has stated clearly that I had no role in the scam. But the ED has arrested and slapped charges against me. The SIT has said there has been misuse of funds. But the ED is trying to frame us,” said Nagendra.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate, which filed a prosecution complaint (PC) before the Special Court for MPs and MLAs in Bengaluru, has named B. Nagendra as the primary accused and mastermind behind the scam and alleged that he orchestrated it with the help of 24 others, including key aides Satyanarayana Varma, Etakari Satyanarayana and J.G. Padmanabha.
The ED investigation also revealed that the account of the corporation was moved to the MG Road Branch without any proper authorisation under Nagendra’s influence. Funds worth Rs 187 crore, including Rs 43.33 crore from the state treasury under the Ganga Kalyana scheme, were deposited without standard procedures and in violation of the government guidelines. These funds were subsequently siphoned off through multiple shell accounts and converted into cash and bullion.
According to the ED chargesheet, an amount of Rs 20.19 crore of the diverted funds was spent to support the Congress candidate (E. Tukaram) in Ballari in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and also used for the personal expenses of Nagendra. The evidence of these expenditures was discovered during search and seizure operations and corroborated by financial analysis and statements. Details of these election expenses were retrieved from the mobile phone of Vijay Kumar Gowda, who handled the cash on Nagendra's instructions, stated the ED.
Nagendra and five other key accused were arrested during the investigation, Nagendra has been accused of obstructing the investigation by destroying mobile phones and instructing others to remain silent.
