Ritika
Davangere/Karnataka: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Madal Virupakshappa, who is facing corruption charges after Rs 8.23 crore was seized from his house and office, on Tuesday said he got the money from the sale of betel nuts. Virupakshappa, MLA from Channagiri and chairman of Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited, told reporters in Channeshpur after being granted bail by the High Court that it was for the first time in the history of India that a ruling party MLA was raided.
Admitting that the money found in his house belonged to his family, the BJP MLA said, “Our taluk is known as the land of betel nuts. In our betel nut land, an ordinary farmer’s house has five to six crore rupees. I have 125 acres of arecanut farm, arecanut market and I have many other businesses also. I will submit proper documents to Lokayukta and get my money back.
Virupakshappa’s son Prashant Kumar MV was caught red-handed by Lokayukta officials while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh on behalf of his father from a contractor at the KSDL office. Further raids led to the recovery of Rs 8.23 crore in cash, huge amounts of gold and silver jewelery and huge investments in land from the house of the Madal family.
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Prashanth is a Karnataka Administrative Service officer and the Chief Accounts Officer of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board. Claiming innocence, he said he had done nothing wrong, as he had no administrative authority to sign any tender document.
Virupakshappa also said that KSDL officials had cleared all the tenders in a transparent manner and there was no corruption. “I have not done anything wrong, so the court has granted me bail,” he said. Terming it as a conspiracy against him, he suspected that it was done by unknown people with malicious political intent.
The BJP MLA said, “This is the first time in history that a raid has been conducted against a ruling party MLA. I would like to say that I have not done anything which will harm my party and I have not done any corruption and I have not been involved in any irregularity. Virupakshappa also claimed that his son was innocent and alleged that someone To trap him, kept 40 lakh rupees in his chamber.
