Former Karnataka Minister B Nagendra was taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday as part of a money-laundering investigation related to alleged irregularities in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Limited, according to official sources.
The Congress MLA was brought from his residence to the ED office in order to be questioned.
Nagendra, the Scheduled Tribes Welfare Minister, submitted his resignation on June 6 due to the allegations against him in connection with the scam.
"I'm being brought from my home...I don't know anything," Nagendra told reporters as he was being taken to the ED office.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted searches in several locations over the past 48 hours, including at the properties of former Karnataka Minister Nagendra and the current Congress MLA Basanagouda Daddal, who serves as Chairman of the Corporation.
The agency has covered approximately 20 places in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra as part of a case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), according to sources.
The issue of illegal money transfers involving the Corporation came to light after Chandrasekharan P, the accounts superintendent, committed suicide on May 26. In a note he left behind, he alleged an unauthorised transfer of Rs 187 crore from the Corporation's bank account, with Rs 88.62 crore being moved illegally to various accounts linked to "well-known" IT companies and a cooperative bank in Hyderabad, among others.
In the note, Chandrasekharan implicated the Corporation's now-suspended Managing Director J G Padmanabh, accounts officer Parashuram G Durugannavar, and Union Bank of India Chief Manager Suchismita Rawal, while also claiming that the "Minister" had given verbal instructions for the fund transfers.
The state government has constituted an SIT headed by Manish Kharbikar, Additional Director General of Police, Economic Offences, at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to conduct the probe.
SIT questioned Nagendra and Daddal on Tuesday about the case.
Mumbai-headquartered Union Bank of India also filed a complaint with the CBI in connection with the embezzlement of money belonging to the Corporation involving its MG Road branch, following which the premier investigation agency initiated a probe.
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