Even drain pipe is not safe to keep hidden money: ACB seizes Rs 13 lakh cash from PWD engineer's house

Bengaluru, Nov 24: Karnataka Anti-Corruption Bureau on Wednesday raided the house of an engineer with the Public Works Department and recovered Rs 13 lakh along with a huge quantity of gold in Kalburgi district, as per news agency ANI.

As part of the statewide crackdown on government officials on charges of disproportionate assets, the ACB officers carried out the raid at Shantha Gowda Biradar, officials said. The officers recovered Rs 13 lakh cash in the pipelines at his residence.

The ACB officials sought the help of a plumber to extract the hidden money. The clippings of the plumber removing the notes have now gone viral.

As per news agency IANS, cash over Rs 50 lakh was seized by the ACB officials at Biradar's residence.

The ACB launched a massive search across the state at 68 locations and targeted 15 government officials from various departments.

During the raids, the officials have seized at least Rs 3.5 crore worth gold ornaments. "Today the ACB conducted a search in 60 places with respect to disproportionate of assets cases registered against 15 officers by a team of 8 superintendents of police, 100 officers and 300 staff," the ACB said in a statement.

According to Indian Express, the ACB, in a statement, said the raids were conducted on the properties of K S Lingegowda, Executive Engineer, Mangaluru Smart City Limited; Lakshminarashimaiah, Revenue Inspector at Doddaballapur; Srinivas K, Executive Engineer of Hemavati Left Bank Canal (HLBC), Mandya; Vasudev, former project manager of Nirmiti Kendra; B Krishnareddy, General Manager of Nandini Milk Products of Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF); A K Masti, Co-operative Development Officer at Savadatti town; Sadashiv Maralingannanavar, Senior Motor Inspector at Gokak; Nathaji Heeraji Patil, Group C employee of Hubli Electricity Supply Company Limited (HESCOM); K S Shivanand, retired sub-registrar; Rajashekar, Physiotherapist at Yelahanka government hospital; Mayanna M, First Division clerk, Major Roads and Infrastructure at Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP); L C Nagaraj, KAS officer at Sakala services; G V Giri, Group D employee of Yeshwanthpura BBMP; and S M Biradar, Junior Engineer at PWD Department Jevargi.