Bengaluru: After DK Shivakumar, RV Deshpande, another senior leader of the Karnataka Congress and former state revenue & industries minister, may be in the crosshairs of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Sources in the ED, which probes economic offences, said Mansoor Khan, currently in CBI custody for a Ponzi scheme he ran under a company called I Monetary Advisory (IMA), has reportedly named Deshpande among those who took money from him to keep his company going. In the 19-page statement, Khan is said to have named 31others, including politicians, bureaucrats, police officers, and incometax department officials.
TOI has seen copies of documents wherein Khan allegedly recorded names of individuals who were his beneficiaries, extent of money paid and the reason for payment.
When contacted, Deshpande strongly denied any involvement with Khan. He said he only met him in the presence of R Roshan Baig, an MLA who is currently disqualified for having resigned from the Congress to enable the BJP to form the government.
Baig is said to have taken Khan to Despande to get a NoObjection Certificate from the government to raise a Rs 600-crore loan from a bank.
The ED document shows that in his statement, Khan said: “R Roshan Baig took me and Nizamuddin, director (in IMA), to R V Deshpande, minister revenue department, and asked him to clear our file with Raj Kumar Khatri, principal secretary, revenue department.”
Deshpande demanded Rs 5 crore to clear file, claims Khan
Deshpande asked me to visit his RT Nagar house, few days later, in the month of May. When I and Nizam went to his house, he said he wants Rs 5 crore to clear the file and we need to take care of Raj Kumar Khatri separately,” Khan said. According to Khan, the following evening, Deshpande’s assistants Guruprasad and Hari called him and asked him to hand over the cash directly to the minister at his residence in RT Nagar.
“On May 29, Deshpande-...called me again and asked for another Rs 5 crore as the work is very serious and needs more law department clearance. We did not have funds to deliver to him at that point of time. So I stopped corresponding with him,” Khan says in the statement.
Deshpande described the statement as “rubbish”. He said: “I admit to meeting Baig and Khan at my official residence in RT Nagar and in my office, twice. It was Baig who brought him to me on both occasion. But there was no other activity as is being claimed by Khan.”