ED attaches properties of Congress MLA Nagendra in Valmiki scam

The enforcement directorate (ED), Bengaluru, has provisionally attached four immovable properties including residential/commercial land and building worth Rs 8.07 crore owned by former tribal affairs minister B Nagendra.

He resigned over alleged diversion of funds of the Maharshi Valmiki ST Corporation. The Corporation oversees implementing welfare programmes for Scheduled Tribe members.

The ED officials arrested Nagendra, who is also the Congress MLA from Ballari Rural, in June last year, after registering a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 over the diversion of government money. The ED had also raided his home, and other places as part of the investigation and filed prosecution complaints before a local court in September last year against 25 people including Nagendra.


The ED, in a statement said, it made efforts to trace the proceeds of crime of the former minister but could not trace it as the same may have been either exhausted or concealed by the MLA. The ED said it was constrained to attach property of equivalent value.