BENGALURU, 9 JULY

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Tuesday questioned former scheduled tribes welfare minister B Nagendra for five hours in connection with the illegal diversion of money from Karnataka State Valmiki ST Development Corporation.

Nagendra had resigned on 6 June after the corporation's Accounts Superintendent Chandrasekharan P died by suicide on 26 May.

In the suicide note, he alleged that there was an unauthorised transfer of Rs 187 crore belonging to the state-run Corporation from its bank account.

Further, Rs 88.62 crore was illegally deposited into various accounts of some IT companies and a Hyderabad-based cooperative bank.

While the state government has constituted the SIT to investigate it, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is also probing it simultaneously based on a complaint by the Union Bank of India.

Meanwhile, two audio clips purportedly of a conversation between two suspended Corporation officials allegedly related to the transaction of money, have gone viral.

Reacting to it, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said he has no information about the audio. He, however, said the inquiry is underway and there is no interference with it.

“We have given a free hand to the investigation team,” Shivakumar added that already the minister has resigned from his position and the truth will come out soon. -PTI