On Saturday, B Y Vijayendra, the president of the Karnataka BJP, announced plans for party leaders to besiege the residence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on July 3. The protest demands Siddaramaiah’s resignation due to his alleged involvement in an illegal money transfer scam linked to a government-operated corporation.
The BJP had previously demonstrated against the Congress-led state government regarding this issue. Protests were organized on Friday in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s offices across nearly all districts.
The controversy surfaced after Chandrashekhar P, the accounts superintendent of the implicated corporation, committed suicide on May 26. He left a note detailing the unauthorized redirection of ₹187 crore from the corporation’s bank account. Of this, ₹88.62 crore was reportedly transferred to accounts associated with major IT firms and a cooperative bank based in Hyderabad.
Chandrashekhar’s note implicated several individuals, including the now-suspended managing director of the corporation, J G Padmanabh, accounts officer Parashuram G Durugannavar, and Suchismita Rawal, the chief manager at Union Bank of India. He also mentioned that these transactions were carried out following verbal directives from a “Minister”.
Following these revelations, B Nagendra, the Scheduled Tribes Welfare Minister, resigned on June 6 amid accusations related to the scam.
Vijayendra criticized the state government for not addressing the concerns raised in Chandrashekhar’s suicide note seriously. He stated that the BJP had been actively protesting the corruption within the Valmiki Development Corporation, which led to Nagendra’s resignation.
He emphasized that this large-scale scam implicated the Congress government in the misappropriation of funds designated for the welfare of the Valmiki and other Scheduled Tribe communities. Moreover, he argued that the chief minister, who also oversees the finance portfolio, should resign as he must have been aware of the ₹187 crore scam, mainly during the Lok Sabha elections.
Vijayendra further announced that all BJP legislators would surround the chief minister’s home in Bengaluru on July 3, pointing out that the state has never witnessed a scam of this magnitude before. He suggested that the misused funds were intended for ST community welfare and raised concerns about the potential misuse of the money for electoral purposes through fake accounts, along with reports of death threats related to the case.
Additionally, the state government has established a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Manish Kharbikar, the Additional Director General of Police for Economic Offences at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), to investigate the matter. Union Bank of India, based in Mumbai, filed a complaint with the CBI regarding the embezzlement scandal at its MG Road branch, prompting the national agency to inquire.