Bengaluru-origin businessman and BJP worker Vignesh Shishir, who has been attempting for over two years to get courts in Uttar Pradesh to order a police investigation into Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s alleged dual citizenship status, is linked to at least two major cases of fraud, involving alleged embezzlement of over Rs 13 crore, in Karnataka.
BJP leaders in Karnataka said Shishir has not been seen in any forum of the state unit and may have connections to leaders in Delhi.
Siphoning off of funds
The first fraud case was registered against Shishir in 2016. His father Sathish Kashyap, who as additional registrar was a government-appointed liquidator for a private firm called Simpsons and Company, was accused of embezzling Rs 9.6 crore between February 2014 and August 2016 from the company and its employee cooperative society.
As per the chargesheet in a Bengaluru trial court, Shishir was a key recipient of the embezzled funds. He is alleged to have received the money through a network of firms, including those engaged in small hydel power projects in which his mother G Anitha was a partner.
According to court documents, Rs 5.80 crore was transferred in small bits (from April 11, 2014, to November 3, 2015) to the account of N R Associates, operated by R Naresh Rao, an associate of Shishir’s family, and Rs 2.40 crore moved (from October 2015 to November 2015) to a firm called Central Infra Energy Corporation of India where Shishir became a director in March 2015.
While Sathish has claimed that money was transferred to hydro firm Central Energy Infra from Simpsons for buying LED bulbs, the money trail found by the CID probe shows funds transferred to several small hydro power companies.
Sathish has also said that he was separated from his wife and hence there was no “nexus” between them for the embezzlement of funds.
On September 30, 2025, a special Lok Ayukta court refused to discharge Shishir, his parents and Rao in the case. The court added: “The most unfortunate part… and the shocking aspect is, failure to take steps of any kind for recovery / seizure of the questioned amount.”
Shishir’s family is associated with 12 small hydro power companies that bagged projects from the Karnataka Renewable Energy Department between 2010 and 2015. In June 2018, six of these were issued notices for cancellation of projects for not starting power generation even after three years.
‘Cheating’ in land deal
In the second case, dated 2018, Shishir is accused of duping a 26-year-old differently abled woman in Bengaluru of Rs 3.36 crore and her 3,680 sq-ft housing plot in north Bengaluru.
Ayamma M had received the plot in Nagashettihalli village in north Bengaluru as a gift deed. As she looked to sell the property, Shishir, his parents and an associate, Kalinga Rao, offered to buy it for Rs 3.36 crore, as per legal documents.
The accused allegedly asked Ayyamma, who was not very aware of banking procedures, to open a joint bank account with Rao, and made her sign blank cheques for the joint account.
Out on bail, in February 2025, Shishir and the others sought to be discharged, saying they had been falsely implicated after cheques they had issued to Ayamma bounced. The trial court however ruled that there was sufficient material for a trial.
The Bengaluru police claim to have proof that Rs 3.36 crore was deposited in the joint account – Rs 83 lakh by Shishir on March 29, 2018, and Rs 2.47 crore from PNB Housing Finance on March 31 – and funnelled to High Octane Word Wide Coffee (Rs 65 lakh), a firm where Shishir is a director, and Vigneshwara Estates and Tourism (Rs 2.02 crore), a firm started by Shishir in 2017.
High Octane World Wide Coffee Ltd is the most successful business operated by Shishir, with a revenue of Rs 271 crore reported to the registrar of companies in 2022.
However, there are alleged irregularities involving this firm as well, with its purchase of 244.7 acres of land in Karike village of Kodagu district in 2022 under scrutiny over allegations of undervaluation, police sources said.
Who is Vignesh Shishir?
In his social media profile, Shishir calls himself a BJP member, and a “nationalist” and a “patriot” who believes in “nation first always, every time”.
Asked about the cases against him, he initially told The Indian Express that these were closed, but later called them politically motivated and linked to cases he had filed against Gandhi in UP in recent years.
A BJP worker who knows Shishir says: “He is a BJP member but he does not work in Karnataka… He never comes to the party office and is hardly seen in party programmes… He is not taken very seriously.”
However, the BJP worker added, Shishir’s focus on the British citizenship issue of Gandhi is clear. “He is in direct touch with some leaders in Delhi on this issue.”
The BJP leader in the Karnataka Legislative Council, Chalavady Narayanaswamy, said that while he knew Shishir’s name, “I have not seen or met him. They say he is a BJP worker in Karnataka but I don’t know.”
Vignesh Shishir’s petition was recently in the news after the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court modified its order a day after it had allowed a police probe into allegations that Gandhi also holds British citizenship. 
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