Forty-eight-year-old SP Mahanthesh, deputy director of co-operatives’ audit department, died early Sunday morning after battling for life for five days. Investigating officials have stumbled upon crucial leads that indicate that the Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer could have been killed by vested interests involved in a housing society scam in Koramangala. Mahanthesh is said to have documents of the scam in his possession and was to file a damning report on it.
Officials said the scam involved a nexus between real estate agents of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and the Mumbai underworld, and police investigation will now veer towards getting to the bottom of this, based on a lead.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that Mahanthesh was conducting parallel audits on several housing societies, including BEML housing society.
He was even offered bribes on several occasions to prevent him from blowing the lid off a slew of irregularities in them, but Mahanthesh is said to have refused. Police officials feel his honesty finally cost him his life.
The police have found that Mahanthesh was regularly receiving death threats—a fact that he kept from all his family members, except his mother, Vijayamma.
Last Tuesday night, Mahanthesh was found near Atria Hotel on Palace Road in an unconscious state with multiple injuries on the head and face. The police also learnt that this was not the first attack on Mahanthesh. A few months ago, some miscreants had attacked and damaged his car.
Sources in the police department told DNA that the society (the police refrained from naming it) was recently in the news for a range of irregularities that were committed over the years.
“Mahanthesh had the documents of the society’s illegalities and they knew he would file a report on it soon,” said an investigating officer, requesting anonymity.
This society in question, which was formed in the early 1960s, got a permanent office only in 1980, in Jayanagar. The society then managed to get land in Koramangala from Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). The BDA had earlier acquired the land from an individual, whose name, too, has been withheld. But the revenue department had failed to change the documents in the name of BDA from the original owner’s name, police said, adding that the original owner, exploiting the situation, then sold the property to a real estate businessman from Andhra Pradesh.
When it went into litigation, several high and mighty among bureaucrats and politicians had tried to close the case.
But when they failed to close the case, the real estate businessman from Andhra Pradesh realised the futility in pursuing legalities and hurriedly sold the land to a person in Mumbai, police sources said. This is where the Mumbai underworld connection came into play. The police suspect that the man who has finally bought the land is well-connected with the Mumbai’s underworld, which could have taken a supari contract to kill Mahanthesh.
A former minister and a former MLA are also said to be involved in this scam, a senior police official said.
DCP (Central) BR Ravikanthegowda said “We are now looking into all the scam-related cases pertaining to housing societies which were being audited under the supervision of Mahanthesh. We have asked for the documents in his possession. After verifying those, if necessary, we will begin an inquiry into these societies to see what kind of irregularities are there.”
Officials said the scam involved a nexus between real estate agents of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and the Mumbai underworld, and police investigation will now veer towards getting to the bottom of this, based on a lead.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that Mahanthesh was conducting parallel audits on several housing societies, including BEML housing society.
He was even offered bribes on several occasions to prevent him from blowing the lid off a slew of irregularities in them, but Mahanthesh is said to have refused. Police officials feel his honesty finally cost him his life.
The police have found that Mahanthesh was regularly receiving death threats—a fact that he kept from all his family members, except his mother, Vijayamma.
Last Tuesday night, Mahanthesh was found near Atria Hotel on Palace Road in an unconscious state with multiple injuries on the head and face. The police also learnt that this was not the first attack on Mahanthesh. A few months ago, some miscreants had attacked and damaged his car.
Sources in the police department told DNA that the society (the police refrained from naming it) was recently in the news for a range of irregularities that were committed over the years.
“Mahanthesh had the documents of the society’s illegalities and they knew he would file a report on it soon,” said an investigating officer, requesting anonymity.
This society in question, which was formed in the early 1960s, got a permanent office only in 1980, in Jayanagar. The society then managed to get land in Koramangala from Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). The BDA had earlier acquired the land from an individual, whose name, too, has been withheld. But the revenue department had failed to change the documents in the name of BDA from the original owner’s name, police said, adding that the original owner, exploiting the situation, then sold the property to a real estate businessman from Andhra Pradesh.
When it went into litigation, several high and mighty among bureaucrats and politicians had tried to close the case.
But when they failed to close the case, the real estate businessman from Andhra Pradesh realised the futility in pursuing legalities and hurriedly sold the land to a person in Mumbai, police sources said. This is where the Mumbai underworld connection came into play. The police suspect that the man who has finally bought the land is well-connected with the Mumbai’s underworld, which could have taken a supari contract to kill Mahanthesh.
A former minister and a former MLA are also said to be involved in this scam, a senior police official said.
DCP (Central) BR Ravikanthegowda said “We are now looking into all the scam-related cases pertaining to housing societies which were being audited under the supervision of Mahanthesh. We have asked for the documents in his possession. After verifying those, if necessary, we will begin an inquiry into these societies to see what kind of irregularities are there.”
Source:www.dnaindia.com
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