Bengaluru. Lokayukta in Karnataka on Thursday raided the premises of about a dozen government officials and engineers in a major action. In the raids conducted at 56 places, Lokayukta found that 11 government officials and engineers have acquired assets worth Rs 45.14 crore which is more than their known sources of income.

Searched 56 places

In an early morning operation, around 100 officers carried out simultaneous raids in nine districts against government officials who had allegedly amassed disproportionate assets (DA). Superintendents of the districts supervised the raids and searches were conducted at 56 locations.

Raids were conducted on the hideouts of these officers

A statement issued by the Lokayukta said the officials raided included the assistant executive engineer at the Panchayat Raj Engineering Department in Belagavi, D Mahadev Bannur; executive engineer at Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited, DH Umesh; assistant executive engineer at BESCOM vigilance police station in Davanagere, MS Prabhakar; project director of Belagavi Nirmithi Kendra, Shekhar Gowda Kuradgi; retired PWD chief engineer M Ravindra; and PWD chief engineer KG Jagadish.

The other officials are the retired executive engineer of rural drinking water and sanitation division Mandya, S Shivaraju; Harohalli tahsildar in Ramanagara, Vijayanna; superintending engineer in irrigation department, Mahesh K; panchayat secretary N M Jagadeesh; and Mahadevapura revenue officer division of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, Basavaraj Magi.

They have the most money

According to the Lokayukta office, in the raids conducted on Thursday, Shekhar Gowda Kuradgi was found to have the highest assets of Rs 7.88 crore, disproportionate to his known sources of income. The officials whose DA is more than Rs 5 crore include Umesh, Ravindra, KG Jagadeesh, and Shivaraju, the statement said. In all, 11 officials were found to have DA of Rs 45.14 crore, the statement said.