A retired engineer, Shivamurthy C, from Karnataka’s Vijayanagara district was allegedly duped of Rs 2.03 crore by a few local BJP leaders on the pretext of giving him a party ticket to contest from the Hagaribommanahalli assembly constituency, which is reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC).
Officials said that a case has been registered against three BJP leaders – Mohan Kataria, former district unit BJP President, local leaders Revanasiddapa and Shekar NP — in the Kottur police station, a Hindustan Times report said. Reportedly the case was registered after a complaint made by Shivamurthy.
As per Shivamurthy, BJP leader Revanasiddapa – his friend – met the former at his residence and claimed that he had close contacts with all the leaders of the party and showed him some pictures to back up his claim. Revanasiddapa promised him a BJP ticket from the Hagaribommanahalli seat. After this, he took Shivamurhty to Bengaluru and introduced him to the BJP leader Shekhar NP, a native of Puttur.
Subsequently, Shivamurthy was made to meet BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel at the party office in Bengaluru. According to Shivamurthy’s brother C Anjinappa “Kateel told Shivamurthy that Rajashekar would take care of his ticket and directed to discuss the matter with him, which appeared to give trust and confidence,” an Indian Express quoted him Anjinappa as saying.
According to the complaint, the accused leaders took a total of Rs 2.03 crore from Shivamurthy between October 9, 2022 and April 30, 2023. “When I asked them to give my money back, they gave me death threats,” Shivamurthy’s complaint said.
In fact, Anjinappa also claim after the issue came to light, his brother Shivamurthy had several meetings with the accused. He said that they gave Shivamurthy cheques and asked him to cash them on specific dates, however, they all bounced. “We were forced to file a complaint later,” Anjinappa added.
After realising that he had been defrauded by those leaders, Shivamurthy wrote a letter to chief minister Siddaramaiah and home minister G Parameshwar, a Hindustan Times report noted.
In his letter, he appealed for justice and provided details of the individuals involved in committing the fraud and urged the authorities to take stringent actions against them, while also requesting to make the return of his money possible.
Shivamurthy came to know about the fraud only when the ticket that he was promised, was allotted to Ballahunsi Ramanna.
“On the complaint of Shivamurthy, we have registered a case against three accused under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating), 506 (threatening with life) and 34 (criminal act done by few persons with common intent). The investigation is underway and appropriate action will be taken,” Geethanjali, Kottur sub-inspector was quoted as saying by HT.
Last month in a similar case, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths from Bengaluru arrested two persons accused of cheating a businessman of crores of rupees by promising him a BJP ticket from Byndoor constituency in Udupi district.
The two, including the prime accused Chaitra Kundapura, were arrested from the parking area of Udupi Sri Krishna Mutt, police said. Srikanth Nayak Pelattur is the other accused who was held along with her.
A BJP ticket aspirant and industrialist Govinda Babu was allegedly cheated to the tune of about Rs 7 crore by the key accused after posing herself as a social worker from Billawa community close to the RSS and BJP leadership. It was alleged that she had taken advantage of the industrialist’s innocent nature.
The industrialist had been cheated in three phases by the accused who allegedly took the huge sum from him on the assurance that he will be given BJP ticket for Byndoor in the last assembly election.
Comments
0 comment