Lokayukta extortion racket: Ashwin Rao drew inspiration from Special 26

New Delhi, July 27: The Special Investigating Team today arrested Ashwin Rao, son of Karnataka Lokayukta, Justice Bhaskar Rao. The name of Ashwin Rao came to the forefront only after the major extortion scam broke out in the Lokayukta.

The modus operandi of allegedly extorting money from people was derived from the popular Hindi movie, Special 26 starring Akshay Kumar, investigators tell OneIndia.

Sources also inform that Ashwin Rao who has been arrested was running a real estate firm in Hyderabad.

Who is Ashwin Rao?

Ashwin Rao is the son of Justice Bhaskar Rao, the former Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court and also the Lokayukta of the state. There was not much known about him until the Lokayukta extortion case came to the limelight. It has been alleged that he had been striking deals using his father's name when he was in Hyderabad.

He operated only out of Hyderabad and investigators have found that he was involved in smaller cases earlier too. The modus operandi alleged to be carried out by Rao and others was very similar to the one that one got to see in the movie Special 26. In the movie a team of fake CBI officers carried out raids and an extortion racket.

This is Krishna Rao calling:

Investigations have found that Ashwin used the name Krishna Rao. This is an alias, an officer said. He would allegedly make calls stating, " this is Krishna Rao here, Joint Commissioner of the Lokayukta. It is also alleged that he would use his fake name and position and extort money.

These are matters under investigation by the Special Investigating Team and they are yet to ascertain the depth of the offence committed by him. However they point out that he did use his father's official position to allegedly extort money.

He would stay in Hyderabad most of the time and run his real estate business. However sources say that when his father became the Lokayukta, his trips to Karnataka too increased a great deal. The SIT is probing who within the Lokayukta he was aligning with to carry out this alleged racket.

An FIR had already been registered against Ashwin identifying him as the 'Krishna Rao had already been registered. It was alleged that he had made a demand of Rs 1 crore from an executive engineer.
The FIR states that Ashwin alias Krishna Rao is accused of extortion, cheating, impersonation and criminal conspiracy.

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