Misappropriation of funds: 6 panchayat presidents, others booked

Mangaluru: 6 gram panchayat’s presidents, panchayat development officers and a nodal officer of the Swachhata Andolan have been booked for misappropriation of funds in buying compost pipes.A case has been booked at the district police station of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday.

The accused have been identified as  Kodimbadi gram panchayat president Sandhya Ramachandra, panchayat development officer (retired) Damodar Gowda, Aryapu panchayat president Geeta, PDO Jagadeesh, Bilinele gram panchayat president Sharada T, PDO Saroja, secretary of the gram panchayat Ramesh P; Koila gram panchayat president Meenakshi B, PDO Chitravati; Perabe gram panchayat president Baby C Patali and PDO J D Lalitha in Puttur, and Jalsoor gram panchayat president Shashikala S Nayak and PDO Sheena A in Sullia.

The nodal officer of Swachhata Andolan, Rohit A.R. has been charged in all the six cases with siphoning off money allotted to buy compost pipes for the year 2015-16.

The case against the accused was registered by ACB DSP Sudheer Hegde. Earlier, the case was being investigated by inspector Yogeesh Kumar is now being investigated by inspector Mohan Kottari. Superintendent of police, ACB West, Shruti N S is guiding the ongoing investigation.