A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA was on Friday caught sitting on more than Rs8 crore in cash at his home and office, close on the heels of his bureaucrat son being caught red-handed accepting a bribe on Thursday.
The incident has come as a major embarrassment for the ruling party in Karnataka just ahead of the election and has forced the MLA, Madal Virupakshappa, who has been named as the main accused, and his son, Prashanth Madal, to resign from their respective posts.
The raids by the anti-corruption wing of the Lokayukta were conducted late on Thursday night and by dawn the MLA put in his papers.
"The anti-corruption branch of Lokayukta caught Prashanth Madal, son of BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa, while taking a bribe of ₹ 40 lakh," the Karnataka Lokayukta said.
The ombudsman said it had been tipped off by a complaint about Prashanth Madal, a 2008-batch Karnataka Administrative Services officer, demanding a ₹ 81-lakh payoff from a contractor for a deal for raw materials needed to manufacture soap and other detergents.
"There is some conspiracy against my family. I'm submitting resignation under moral responsibility as there is an allegation against me," Virupakshappa said in a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
The red-faced chief minister tried to turn the tables, calling it the “government’s war against corruption”.
“Our government doesn’t spare anyone who is involved in corruption, irrespective of their party. A detailed probe will be conducted on the accused and the money that was unearthed. The Lokayukta body in the state was disbanded by the Congress government and we re-launched it after coming to power. Many Congress leaders escaped from it and this is our war against corruption,” Bommai said.
The MLA, who has fled according to sources, has applied for anticipatory bail.
Virupakshappa, who represents Channagiri in Davanagere district, was the chairman of the state-owned Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited, which makes the famous Mysore Sandal Soap. His son is the chief accountant at the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
The Bommai government is not new to corruption charges. In January 2023, the head of the Karnataka State Contractors' Association, Manjunath, claimed at a press conference that the association had documents, including audio clips and WhatsApp messages, proving that several ministers and legislators were demanding bribes.
In another instance, Lingayat seer Dingaleshwara Swamiji of the Balehosur Mutt, accused Karnataka government officials of demanding a 30 per cent commission from mutts to release funds.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has charged that the Bommai administration is a 40% commission government which the local Congress has used as a stick to beat the BJP government with.
