Cash for ticket scam: Rs 2 cr worth valuables, Rs 76L cash seized from Hindutva activist, seer

Bengaluru, Sept 21 (IANS) Bengaluru Police Commissioner B. Dayananda said on Thursday that the special wing CCB sleuths, who are investigating the BJP MLA ticket scam, have seized Rs 2 crore worth valuables, gold jewellery, and Rs 76 lakh in cash.

Speaking to the media, Dayanand said that Rs 2 crore worth valuables, and gold jewellery were seized from accused Chaitra Kundapura, a Hindutva activist, in the case.

Dayananda stated that Rs 56 lakh in cash was seized from the mutt of the arrested seer Abhinava Halasri. After carrying out further investigations Rs 20 lakh was seized from a person connected to the seer.

The police have arrested 8 persons and notice has been issued to four persons to appear for questioning.

Sources said that the seer had paid Rs 20 lakh as lease amount towards agricultural land and it has been recovered. The police have frozen the bank accounts of the accused persons. The probe revealed that the accused were leading a luxurious life and their lifestyle had changed recently.

The CCB is also contemplating issuing a notice to Congress spokesperson from Mysuru, M. Laxman, who had alleged that he had got inputs on the BJP MLA ticket scam amounting to Rs 185 crore. Seventeen ticket aspirants have been cheated by Chaitra Kundapura. She got tickets for 23 people and made money, he had claimed.

He had said that Chaitra Kundapura had direct connections with the BJP top leadership and demanded that it should be probed. “We are taking a delegation to CM Siddaramaiah in this regard and he will be requested to give directions for a comprehensive probe into the scam,” he had said. The BJP had given tickets to 72 new faces in the recently concluded assembly elections and faced a humiliating defeat. 

The scam came to light following an industrialist Govind Babu Poojari lodging a complaint against Chaitra Kundapura and others for cheating him of Rs 5 crores after promising a BJP MLA ticket.

Kundapura had claimed the involvement of the top party leadership in the scam, according to sources.

In a letter to the Enforcement Directorate, Kundapura had demanded that transactions of industrialist Govinda Babu Poojari, a complainant in her case, be investigated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. She also expressed her willingness to cooperate with the investigation, sources said.

Kundapura had also proclaimed before the media while being in custody that the involvement of big fish will come out once the seer is arrested.