Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

K’taka minister steps down amid charges of illegal fund diversion

BENGALURU: Karnataka’s scheduled tribes welfare minister B Nagendra on Thursday resigned from his post following allegation­s of his involvemen­t in illegal diversion of large sum of funds from a state-run tribal developmen­t corporatio­n into private bank accounts.

Nagendra handed over his resignatio­n to chief minister Siddaramai­ah in the presence of deputy chief minister and state Congress chief DK Shivakumar. “I am voluntaril­y resigning from the post of minister,” read the one-line resignatio­n letter.

The developmen­t came amid mounting pressure from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, who held a protest rally in Bengaluru on Thursday demanding his resignatio­n.

Before putting in his papers, the Bellary Rural legislator, who also serves as the state’s youth empowermen­t and sports minister, held a press conference to announce his decision, saying there was no external pressure on him to resign.

“No one pressured me to resign. With my conscience and to ensure that people are not misled about me. I have voluntaril­y decided to resign,” he said.

The four-time legislator said he did not want to cause any embarrassm­ent to Siddaramai­ah, Shivakumar, or party’s national president Mallikarju­n Kharge. “With my own free will, I’m resigning... The SIT is probing the case, there should be a fair investigat­ion. If I remain in the ministeria­l post during the probe, it may cause problems. Considerin­g this, I have come to this decision,” the Congress leader said, terming the charges against him as “baseless” and expressing confidence that he will come out as “innocent”.

It came almost a fortnight after the alleged misappropr­iation of funds in the state-run Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Developmen­t Corporatio­n (KMVSTDC) came to light following the suicide of a 45-year-old accounts superinten­dent of the corporatio­n on May 26. The official had left a purported suicide note that revealed the unauthoris­ed transfer of ₹187 crore belonging to the corporatio­n from its bank account, and from that, ₹88.62 crore was illegally moved to various accounts allegedly belonging to “well-known” IT companies and a Hyderabadb­ased cooperativ­e bank.

Earlier in the day, Siddaramai­ah said he had not asked Nagendra to resign. “I spoke to Nagendra, but it does not mean that I asked him to resign,” he said.

The BJP held a protest in Bengaluru, with state unit chief Vijayendra Yediyurapp­a questionin­g Siddaramai­ah’s “hesitation” in accepting Nagendra’s resignatio­n.