Bengaluru: It’s tough times ahead for Bengaluru deputy commissioner BM Vijayshankar as he was arrested by the sleuths of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) this evening (July 8).

The arrest was made in relation to the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam. This only goes on to prove that government officials may have had a pivotal role to play in the scam.

The top bureaucrat is said to have received Rs 1.5 crore from the prime accused Mansoor, through a village accountant Manjunath.

It was while interrogating Manjunath and LC Nagaraj, the Bengaluru North assistant commissioner that his name came out. The two were arrested last week.

Indian Express quoted DCP Girish, an investigating officer saying, “During our investigation, we found that Vijayshankar has taken Rs 1.5 crore through the village accountant to give a clearance certificate to a Central agency investigating the scam."

Nagaraj’s case is surely terrible. He was the competent authority who was given the responsibility of investigating the fraud when the RBI highlighted the irregularities in the company. As part of his investigation, Nagaraj had issued a public notice, asking people to come forward and file complaints. But later, even without carrying out a fair probe, a clearance certificate was issued to RBI, allegedly telling them that no complaints were registered against IMA.

For this purpose, Nagaraj took a sum of Rs 4.5 crore and the Bengaluru deputy commissioner is said to have taken Rs 1.5 crore.