IAS Officer K Srinivas Appointed Bengaluru Urban DC Again

Days after the arrest and suspension of Bengaluru Urban district deputy commissioner J Manjunath, the state government has replaced him with 2012 batch IAS officer K Srinivas.
Srinivas will replace Sangappa, who had taken charge after Manjunath was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in connection with a bribery case earlier this month. Appointed on Monday, this is Srinivass second stint as district deputy commissioner of Bengaluru Urban. Previously, he was appointed as deputy commissioner after former IAS officer B M Vijay Shankar was arrested in the IMA scam in July 2019. Shankar died later, allegedly by suicide.
Manjunath was arrested for his alleged involvement in collecting a bribe of Rs 5 lakh to issue a favorable order in a case. This marked the fourth instance in which a top official of the Bengaluru Urban district administration has been arrested in the last 12 years.
In 2010, special deputy commissioner Ramanjanaiah and two others were arrested by the Lokayukta for allegedly collecting a bribe of Rs 50,000 for conversion of five acres of land.
In 2013, based on a private complaint, the Lokayukta police had arrested then Bengaluru Urban DC M K Aiyappa and his subordinate officers over forging land records, but the high court later quashed the criminal proceedings against him. In 2019, Bengaluru Urban DC B M Vijay Shankar was arrested on charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 1.5 crore in the IMA Ponzi scheme.
The deputy commissioner (DC) is a quasi-judicial authority in terms of revenue and civil disputes pertaining to land litigation. DCs have the power to solve land disputes and issue no-objection certificates (NOCs) and licences. With a multi-million real estate sector thriving in Bengaluru, political masters often use their trusted officers at the DC office, especially in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts, said an official working at the DCs office.