Another cheating case against Hindutva activist Chaitra Kundapura; mutt seer arrested in Odisha

According to Sudheena, he first met Kundapura during a ‘Go Raksha Samavesha’ in 2015. The activist encouraged him to open a clothing store and he raised the necessary funds through fishing and other means. He allegedly gave Rs 2 lakh cash to Kundapura and transferred Rs 3 lakh to her bank account. However, the cloth shop was registered in Kundapura’s name when Sudheena was away working in Andhra Pradesh, as per his complaint lodged at Kota police station in Udupi.

The BJP member alleged that when requested Kundapura to return his money, she threatened to file a sexual harassment case against him. The Kota police have registered a case under sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 417 (cheating), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC.

Kundapura and six others were arrested earlier this month for reportedly cheating a Karnataka businessman, Govind Babu Pujari, of Rs 5 crore by promising him a BJP ticket from Byndoor constituency in the 2023 Assembly polls. The businessman had filed a police complaint against Kundapura and others on September 8, claiming that they took the money from him in 2022 after learning that he was aspiring to contest the Assembly polls from Byndoor on a BJP ticket.

Meanwhile, the CCB police on Tuesday arrested G M Abhinava Halaveerappajja, the chief pontiff of Halashri Mutt in the Vijayanagara region of Karnataka who is also accused in Govind’s cheating case, from a train near Cuttack in Odisha. It can be recalled that Kundapura had told the media, “Let the seer (Halaveerappajja) get arrested, the truth will come out. Big people’s names will be exposed. This is a conspiracy.”

A police officer said they are likely to bring the seer to Bengaluru by Wednesday as they have to complete legal formalities.

In Mysuru, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) spokesperson M Lakshman alleged that more than Rs 185 crore has been exchanged and 17 people have been cheated on the pretext of getting BJP tickets. “Kundapura has direct links with former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and former home minister Araga Jnanendra. The gang has taken money from 23 people, luring them with BJP tickets in the elections. There are BJP politicians who are involved in it and we will reveal their names soon,” he said.