Bengaluru, June 25 (IANS) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R. Ashoka on Thursday alleged that a massive fraud amounting to Rs 225 crore has taken place under the state’s Gruha Lakshmi scheme, terming it a case of “state-sponsored cybercrime”, and demanding an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and central cybercrime agencies.

Addressing a press conference, Ashoka stated that a massive Rs 225 crore government-sponsored loot has taken place in the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, involving a gang of officials and politicians. He demanded that an SIT (Special Investigation Team) be constituted immediately to investigate this irregularity.

He said that despite the CAG report clearly stating a Rs 225 crore scam, the government has taken no action. Payments were made to fake accounts, and a big gang of officials and politicians is behind it. He questioned whether the Revenue Department is simply sleeping while money is being paid in the names of dead people.

Ashoka said that even though Karnataka is known as an IT state, the government has failed to prevent payments being made in the names of deceased persons. He alleged that the software was deliberately designed to enable this loot in the names of the dead. He demanded that this be the biggest cybercrime and that an SIT be formed to investigate it.

Ashoka alleged that it has been found that 2.11 lakh beneficiaries are dead, and the data of another 77,000 people is yet to be traced. He said that already Rs 5,000 crore has been swallowed, and now another scam has occurred.

He alleged that the Congress has formed a Guarantee Committee to award degrees to the “displaced” and is spending Rs 150 crore on it, and that this committee has failed to prevent irregularities. He added that they themselves are the leaders of these scams.

He criticised the fact that, under the Congress government, the Finance Department has become a department of crisis. Since no revenue is coming in, pension payments for 16 lakh beneficiaries have been suspended for the last three months, and many of them cannot even go to government offices to follow up.

He said if the government had conducted a proper survey, issued notices, and then cancelled them, it could have been accepted. But the government has adopted a policy of “guarantees first, pensions later”.

Earlier, in a statement issued, Ashoka claimed that details emerging from the alleged scam indicate systematic manipulation of beneficiary data and financial transactions. He criticised Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar for maintaining silence on the issue and alleged that the fraud could not be dismissed as a mere technical lapse by government officials.

According to Ashoka, the alleged irregularities came to light through a “data dump” analysis of departmental records rather than through routine audits. He claimed that software algorithms had been manipulated to facilitate the transfer of funds to accounts belonging to deceased beneficiaries and, in some cases, to the same bank accounts repeatedly.

The BJP leader further alleged that beneficiary accounts were repeatedly changed over two years, with some reactivated after several months and others receiving payments intermittently.

He claimed that such patterns indicated a systematic operation involving digital manipulation and possible money laundering.

Accusing senior officials and political leaders of complicity in the alleged fraud, Ashoka said the matter raised serious cybercrime concerns and required an independent investigation.

He called for a probe to determine the IP addresses from which the alleged data manipulation was carried out and to identify the network through which funds were allegedly diverted.

Demanding immediate intervention by central investigative agencies, Ashoka said the alleged Gruha Lakshmi scam should be handed over to the CBI and specialised cybercrime authorities for a comprehensive investigation.

The Karnataka government has not yet responded to the latest allegations.

–IANS

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