Karnataka Lokayukta resigns over bribery charge against son

Bowing to public and political pressure, Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Y. Bhaskar Rao resigned five months after the watchdog's police charged his son Y. Ashwin Rao with seeking bribe from state government officials.

According to a Raj Bhavan communique on Tuesday, Governor Vajubhai R. Vala accepted Rao's resignation with immediate effect.

Though there was speculation that Rao had put in his papers on Monday, there was no official confirmation from Raj Bhavan or the state government about it till the communique was issued.

Rao resigned after proceeding on leave for over 120 days since the special investigation team (SIT) arrested Ashwin on July 27 in Hyderabad and remanded him to judicial custody in the city, pendng investigation and trial in the special court here.

The legislative assembly also adopted an opposition motion on November 28 for Bhaskar Rao's removal on the charges that he had "abetted" his son in indulging in graft and also did not act against some officials of the watchdog whom the SIT booked and arrested for resorting to extortion and blackmailing of scores of unnamed officials over the last couple of years.

The state government had set up the SIT in June after the opposition BJP and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), advocates' associations, civic activists and NGOs sought Bhaskar Rao's resignation over the alleged bribery scandal in the very institution that was set up over three decades ago (1984) to fight corruption in the state administrative machinery.

Among the tainted officials the SIT arrested is Lokayukta joint commissioner Syed Riyaz.