Indian
Express: Bangalore: Wednesday, 19 August 2015.
A photo
journalist cum RTI activist has been arrested by the Special Investigation Team
(SIT) of the Karnataka police in connection with an extortion racket within the
Karnataka Lokayukta involving the Lokayukta’s son Ashwin Rao. Rajashekhar, a
resident of Tiptur in Tumkur district, is the eighth person to be arrested by
the SIT, since it began investigations into the extortion racket last month.
Rajashekhar
was remanded to seven days police custody for further investigations in the
case.
The SIT has
so far registered three cases against Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao’s son Ashwin Rao
and a syndicate operating with him to extort money from government officials
after threatening to bring corruption cases against them.
SIT sources
said that Rajashekhar was a close associate of Bhaskar alias 420 Bhaskar who
functioned as a secretary to Ashwin Rao and was recently arrested by the SIT.
Police said
that Rajashekhar was employed as a photographer in a tabloid that was being
published by Bhaskar before he turned into an RTI activist who used to identify
government officials to be targetted for extortion by others including Bhaskar
and Ashwin.
Others
arrested in the case so far include the Lokayukta PRO Syed Riyazathullah and a
journalist M B Sreenivasa Gowda. The gang collected details of government
officials handling cost intensive projects and extorted money from them by
threatening Lokayukta corruption charges, the SIT has alleged.
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