Minister resigns after illegal money transfer allegations

Karnataka tribal welfare and sports minister B Nagendra resigned on Thursday over a scandal involving illegal transfer of ₹89.63 crore of government funds to unknown people in Hyderabad. The minister, who represents Ballari Rural in the assembly, resigned after the BJP stepped up its campaign seeking his resignation, rejecting arguments in his defence by Congress leaders.

The ruling Congress gave up on him as the BJP sought to amplify it as a major scam under CMSiddaramaiah's watch. The government has formed a special investigation team to probe it, while the CBI has already taken up the matter on a complaint from Union Bank of India. The BJP, which led a march to the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru and petitioned the governor about the scam, turned its ire on the CM later in the day, saying the illegal transfer of funds could not have happened without his knowledge. A group of people allegedly played fraud on the bank and siphoned off the funds, allocated to the Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation for the welfare of scheduled tribe members, between February 21 and May 6 this year. The alleged fraud came to light only on May 24, after the corporation managing director wrote to UBI's MG Road branch asking it to restore the funds debited from its account as it had not authorised any of the transactions that took place over this period.