Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) this morning conducted searches at the premises of Congress Ballari MP E. Tukaram and three party MLAs in connection with a money laundering case linked to the alleged Valmiki scam, official sources confirmed.

The searches were carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. A total of eight locations — five in Ballari and three in Bengaluru — were raided, including the residences of Tukaram and MLAs Nara Bharath Reddy (Ballari City), J.N. Ganesh (Kampli) and N.T. Srinivas (Kudligi).

According to sources, the ED is probing allegations that funds siphoned from the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (KMVSTDC) were misused for election-related expenses, including cash distribution to voters & Congress workers during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Ballari.

The KMVSTDC, established in 2006, was intended to promote the socio-economic development of ST communities in Karnataka.

However, in 2023, a massive financial scandal surfaced after its Accounts Superintendent, P. Chandrasekharan, was found dead on May 21 in an alleged suicide. A note left behind accused senior officials of illegally transferring large sums of money from the Corporation’s accounts to fake and shell entities.

Subsequently, FIRs were registered by Karnataka Police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), triggering a multi-agency probe. The ED took up the case under PMLA, alleging that over Rs. 187.33 crore meant for ST welfare schemes was diverted between March and May 2023.

Arrests and confessions

Former Tribal Welfare Minister and Ballari Rural MLA B. Nagendra was among six persons arrested in connection with the scam. Although he later secured bail, the ED charge-sheet claims Nagendra was a key conspirator, handling a substantial portion of the siphoned funds.

Nagendra denied wrongdoing, stating that the KMVSTDC Managing Director, J.G. Padmanabha, had transferred the   funds without his knowledge. In contrast, Padmanabha told the ED that he acted under the instructions of higher authorities, including Nagendra.

The ED has recorded statements from Nagendra’s personal assistant, Vijay Kumar Gowda, who admitted to receiving and distributing large sums of cash on Nagendra’s instructions. The funds, he claimed, were disbursed to party workers and voters to boost support for Congress candidate E. Tukaram.

Alleged vote-buying

According to the ED charge-sheet, Rs. 200 was given to each of the 7,40,112 voters in Ballari, amounting to over Rs. 14 crore. An additional Rs. 10,000 per polling booth was allegedly distributed to Congress workers for managing booth operations, totalling Rs. 72 lakh.

The ED claimed that the three Congress MLAs — Nara Bharath Reddy, J.N. Ganesh and N.T. Srinivas — facilitated the distribution of this cash in their respective constituencies. The agency said its investigation has corroborated these claims with supporting evidence.