The Wilson garden police on Wednesday arrested a former chief traffic manager of BMTC for allegedly forging the signatures of senior officers to tamper with documents and award contracts and tenders to undeserving applicants causing financial loss to the tune of ₹17 crore to the corporation.
While the accused Sriram Mulkavan has been arrested by the police, the others involved in the scam are absconding. The accused forged the signature of former BMTC Managing Director C. Shikha and Director of Security and Vigilance Wing Director K. Arun, the police allege.
When the BMTC vigilance discovered the scam and verified the documents, they summoned the accused and questioned him. Assistant security and vigilance officer C.K. Ramya conducted a probe and found that the accused were involved in large-scale irregularities and filed a complaint. The probe revealed that the accused had taken bribe from the beneficiaries through UPI and even helped them to waive dues by forging the letterhead and signatures of the senior BMTC officials.
According to the FIR, the accused forged the signatures of senior officials by making colour photocopies and using it in various other documents illegally. The fraud was said to have been committed from March 2020 to September 2023.
This is the second case of corruption being exposed at the BMTC. A few days ago, seven officials working in BMTC unit 33 were suspended for being caught demanding and accepting bribe from the staff through UPI payments. The accused included depot manager, traffic inspector and controller, attendance supervisor, conductor, and a driver. They would demand bribe from the staff for duty allotment, leave sanction, and even allotting good condition vehicles to conductors and drivers. Based on a complaint, the vigilance officials traced as much as ₹4 lakh bribe collected by the accused.
