Munirathna: An MLA dogged by many controversies

Former Minister Munirathna Naidu, 60, is the BJP MLA from R. R. Nagar in Bengaluru, has been a film producer, civil contractor and a former rowdy-sheeter. No stranger to controversies, he seems to be facing the toughest one ever right now with a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe his alleged crimes, including bribery, criminal intimidation, caste abuse, rape, honey trap and blackmail.

He appears to be at his lowest politically, with allegations of abusing Vokkaligas and Scheduled Castes, and also blackmailing his own party leaders using honey trap.

However, Munirathna has been a survivor, always managing to get out of tight spots and reinventing himself. He has often proudly said that he has faced many allegations and cases in his life, but was never convicted. 

Days in the underworld

Munirathna’s family hails from Chittoor in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. They settled down in Kodandaramapura, Vyalikaval, near Malleswaram in Bengaluru, where the MLA continues to reside. After losing his father when he was 15, Munirathna was arrested for assaulting two rowdy-sheeters in his area in the late 1970s.

In jail, he met gangster Kotwal Ramachandra and became one of his close associates, according to a retired police officer. His elder brother Korangu Krishna too was a notorious rowdy-sheeter. Korangu Krishna was an associate of Kotwal’s opponent and another gangster M.P. Jayaraj.

During his stint with Kotwal, Munirathna was arrested multiple times in several cases and was a rowdy-sheeter at Vyalikawal Police Station. During this period, the brothers held the contract for managing swimming pools at Bhashyam Circle, Mahalakshmi Layout and Basavanagudi. 

‘Turned a new leaf’

Following the murder of Kotwal Ramachandra and several of his gang members in 1986, Munirathna decided to turn a new leaf, which he has often said was possible only because of the help from noted police officer B. B. Ashok Kumar.

Munirathna soon became a Class 1 civil contractor with the civic body of Bengaluru. 

In 2001, he reinvented himself as a producer in the Kannada film industry. He has produced five films till date, of which three were remakes of hit films from other languages. Most of the films were big-ticket multi-starrers. What adds to his clout in the film industry is that his daughter is married to the son of leading Kannada producer ‘Rockline’ Venkatesh.

Political debut followed by fake bill scam

In April 2010, Munirathna made his debut as an elected representative. He was elected as a councillor from Yeshwantpur ward to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) as a candidate of the Congress party. But soon, he got embroiled in a controversy when Sanjana Singh, a class 12 student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Hebbal, died after a compound wall collapsed on her during rains on June 1, 2010. A Lokayukta probe led by Justice N. Santosh Hegde revealed that Munirathna was one of the contractors responsible for shoddy work on the wall, and recommended action against him. 

After that, he faced allegations of involvement in the ‘fake bill’ scam in BBMP amounting to ₹1,500 crore. Munirathna was then a contractor for many of the 285 projects that came under the scanner. The alleged scam involved billing more than once for work that was not even carried out on the ground in R. R. Nagar, Malleswaram, and Gandhi Nagar Assembly constituencies between 2008 and 2012.

In 2011, a fire broke out in the records room of the BBMP, which led to allegations of arson. A probe could not pin down, or even identify, any culprit, or culprits. 

MLA was unstoppable during Congress rule from 2013-18

Even as the probe dragged on, Munirathna was elected to the Assembly from R. R. Nagar constituency in 2013, a seat he has retained ever since.

During the tenure of the Congress government from 2013-18, Munirathna’s influence increased at a breakneck pace. Along with S. Somashekhar from Yeshwantpur and Byrathi Basavaraj from K. R. Puram, he was part of the ‘SBM trio’ that was considered to be close to then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

There were complaints within Congress that their constituencies took away the lion’s share of funds earmarked for Bengaluru’s development. He had ugly public spats with multiple women councillors of the BJP in his constituency. He is now accused of ‘honey-trapping’ the husband of one of the BJP councillors he had a tiff with. He is also accused of sending an ‘AIDS patient’ to honey-trap him. 

In the eye of a storm

Come 2018, Munirathna was back amidst a controversy. Justice H. N. Nagamohan Das Committee submitted a 600-page report on the ‘fake bill’ scam, reportedly indicting many, including Munirathna. The report hasn’t been tabled in the Assembly till date.

In March 2018, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chargesheeted him in the case. But that did not deter him from seeking re-election from R. R. Nagar on a Congress ticket in May that year. When elections officials raided a house, said to be that of one his associates, they found over 10,000 election ID cards, indicating malpractice.

The election was postponed and held three weeks later. Munirathna won comfortably. His opponent from BJP ‘Tulasi’ Muniraju Gowda challenged his election in the High Court of Karnataka. 

In 2019, Munirathna defected to BJP, along with 16 other Congress and JD(S) MLAs, in what came to be known as ‘Operation Kamala’, bringing down the JD(S)-Congress coalition government led by H. D. Kumaraswamy.

Ever since he crossed over to the BJP, he has had public spats with D. K. Shivakumar and his brother — former Bengaluru Rural MP D. K. Suresh. R. R. Nagar Assembly segment is part of Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency.

Even as other defectors faced by-polls in December 2019, a petition by ‘Tulasi’ Muniraju Gowda seeking his disqualification delayed a by-election in R. R. Nagar. The by-election was eventually held a year later in November 2020. Despite a high-pitch campaign by the D. K. brothers, who pitted Kusuma Ravi against him, he won comfortably. Locals say that the work he had done in the slums of his constituency during the first wave of the covid pandemic and the lockdown worked in his favour.

Munirathna was sworn in as a minister on August 4, 2021. He held charge of Horticulture, Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics portfolios till the BJP government was voted out in 2023. He was re-elected from R. R. Nagar seat in the May 2023 Assembly elections. 

D. Kempanna, former president of the Karnataka Contractors’ Association, who had exposed the demand for ‘40% commission’ in the then BJP government, had named Munirathna as one of the corrupt ministers. Munirathna had filed a criminal defamation case against Kempanna and other office-bearers of the association. Vyalikaval police had arrested Kempanna and three others in December 2022 in connection with the case, drawing criticism that they were acting at the behest of Munirathna.

The slew of allegations he is facing now — ranging from bribery and caste abuse to honey trap and rape — may be the toughest he has faced in his chequered career.