The Hindu : Karnataka News : BJP MLA caught after ‘accepting’ bribe

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Friday, Jan 30, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka

BJP MLA caught after ‘accepting’ bribe

Staff Reporter

Y. Sampangi is said to have demanded Rs. 5 lakh from a businessman

It is the first time in Karnataka that a legislator has been booked for alleged acceptance of bribe
Sampangi is now in judicial custody

BANGALORE: The Lokayukta police on Thursday trapped a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA while he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs. 5 lakh — Rs. 50,000 in cash and the rest as a cheque — at the Legislators’ Home here. This is the first time in Karnataka that a legislator has been booked for alleged acceptance of bribe. He is now in judicial custody.

Y. Sampangi, representing Kolar Gold Fields reserved constituency, reportedly demanded Rs. 5 lakh from Farook, a businessman from Andersonpet, to close a case regarding a disputed site in Kolar Gold Fields.

Giving details, Lokayukta N. Santhosh Hegde told presspersons that Mr. Farook’s site was taken over by Illias, Nayaaz and Khan Fiaz, with forged documents. Mr. Farook filed a case in the civil court and tried to lodge a complaint against the three persons with the Andersonpet police, which turned it down and instead registered a complaint against him by the other three.

Mr. Farook went to the police station and sought to know the reason why the others’ complaint had been accepted and not his. “Sub Inspector Pasha and Inspector Laxmaiah asked Farook to approach the Deputy Superintendent of Police or the MLA,” Mr. Hegde said. Mr. Farook met Mr. Sampangi, who allegedly demanded Rs. 5 lakh to make the police file a “B” report. “When Farook said he could not produce the entire amount, Mr. Sampangi asked him to bring Rs. 50,000 in cash and a self-cheque for the remaining amount to the Legislators’ Home on Thursday,” said Mr. Hegde.

Talk recorded

The businessman recorded the conversation he had with the MLA and played it before the Lokayukta police on Wednesday. A case was registered and a team, headed by Superintendent of Police Madhukar Shetty, went to Mr. Sampangi’s room at the Legislators’ Home. They caught him post-transaction, as he was directing Sub Inspector Pasha, over telephone, not to trouble Mr. Farook.

“This act of Mr. Sampangi indicates that he has done such work earlier too,” Mr. Hegde said, and added that the MLA had been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

BJP suspends Sampangi

The BJP suspended Mr. Sampangi from party membership. The BJP State unit president D.V. Sadananda Gowda said the party would also constitute a team to look into the episode.

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