Published Dec 05, 2023 | 8:53 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 05, 2023 | 8:56 PM
File Photo of Chaitra Kundapura. (Supplied)
Two of the accused in the cash-for-MLA-ticket case in Karnataka — right-wing activist Chaitra K and her relative Srikanth — were granted bail by a local court in Bengaluru on Monday, 4 December.
The two were released from the Parappana Agrahara Central prison on Tuesday.
Sleuths of the Bengaluru City Police’s Central Crime Branch (CCB), had probed the case of a Bengaluru-based businessman Govinda Babu Pujari allegedly losing ₹5 crore after he was promised a BJP MLA ticket seven months ago.
They submitted a charge-sheet on 8 November in the 3rd Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Court.
The Karnataka High Court recently granted bail to seer Abhinava Halashree of the Hirehadagali Halaswamy Math, who was the third accused in the case.
The CCB police had arrested Chaitra K and eight others on the charges of cheating Govinda Babu Poojary by promising him a BJP ticket from the Byndoor Assembly constituency in coastal Karnataka in the May elections.
The businessman filed a complaint at the Bandepalya police station in Bengaluru on 8 September and claimed that a “Sangh volunteer” named Prasad had introduced him to Chaitra K.
Chaitra allegedly told the victim that she was close to leaders of the RSS and the BJP, and promised to help him get an MLA ticket. For a certain sum of money, of course, alleged Poojary.
However, after failing to keep her promise, and when Poojary demanded his money back, Chaitra and her associates allegedly started threatening him.
A sessions court earlier restricted the news outlets from using Chaitra’s surname in reports after a complaint that the use of the town’s name was affecting its reputation.
Chaitra was arrested by the CCB sleuths in September this year amid high drama near a popular temple premise in Udupi, where she apparently attempted to die by suicide by swallowing a finger ring.
The CCB sleuths subsequently arrested her associates Gagan Kadur, Ramesh, Dhanraj, Srikanth, Prajwal, and Chenna Naik. They eventually arrested Abhinav Halasree.
The CCB had submitted a charge-sheet running to around 800 pages with records of the statements of around 75 witnesses and seven accused parties, along with supporting evidence in the form of audio and video files.
The CCB sleuths also said that around 90 percent of the cheated money has been recovered with documentary evidence.
They also said that the accused parties could not show the source of the money in their accounts.
The CCB added that the contents in the charge sheet were watertight, and that they were confident that the case would end in conviction.
