Bengaluru: Bengaluru City Police have arrested self-proclaimed Sangh activist Chaitra Kundapura and four others for allegedly duping a BJP functionary into paying Rs 5 crore in exchange for a ticket to contest the May assembly polls.
Kundapura, a hardline Hindutva leader from coastal Karnataka known for her fiery speeches, was arrested Tuesday night for allegedly tricking Govind Babu Poojary, a 44-year-old Bengaluru resident.
The others arrested in the case have been identified as Dhanraj, Chikkamagalur Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) secretary Gagan Kadur, Srikanth, Prajwal and Ramesh. Three people, including a self-styled religious leader, are still at large.
The arrests came on the back of a police complaint filed by Poojary on 8 September. According to the First Information Report (FIR) — seen by ThePrint — the suspects have been booked under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 419 and 420 (cheating),170 (impersonating a public servant), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
In his complaint, Poojary claimed that the suspects — Kundapura chief among them — claimed to have “connections” in the BJP, the party’s ideological fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and the Supreme Court in order to lure him.
“They (the suspects) created a character named Vishwanath ji and took money on the promise to get me a (BJP) ticket,” Poojary told ThePrint.
According to her Facebook profile, Kundapura is a national executive committee member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — the student wing of the RSS.
ThePrint tried to reach senior officers at the Benguluru Police’s Central Crime Branch (CCB) — the wing that made the arrests — and senior RSS functionaries via calls for comment. This report will be updated if and when they respond.
However, an RSS functionary who didn’t want to be named said that Kundapura couldn’t be part of the all-male organisation.
Kuilady Suresh Nayak, BJP’s Udupi district president, acknowledged to ThePrint that Poojary was associated with the party, but denied any links between the party and Kundapura.
The elaborate ‘ruse’
Poojary, who runs the Sri Varalakshmi Charitable Trust in Byndoor, Udupi, told ThePrint that he has been associated with the RSS for six years and the BJP for five. “We came from the Sangh and very much believe in it. They (Chaithra & others) kept this in mind and duped me,” he said.
According to the FIR, Poojary was introduced to Kundapura by Prasad Byndoor, a local BJP worker, in mid-2022. Kundapura had allegedly told him that she knew Supreme Court judges, and had influence in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and with senior BJP leaders and promised Poojary a BJP ticket from Byndoor assembly constituency in Udupi.
On 4 July 2022, Poojary allegedly met Kundapura and BJP Yuva Morcha leader Gagan Kadur, who in turn told him to meet a “senior RSS leader” from Chikkamagaluru they identified as ‘Vishwanath ji‘. According to the FIR, the two leaders had claimed “Vishwanath” had been an RSS pracharak for 45 years and was usually stationed in north India but was in the district at that time.
When they met on 4 June, 2022, ‘Vishwanath ji’, who claimed to be part of the central selection committee and a coordinator between the RSS and BJP, allegedly promised to get Poojary a ticket for Rs 3.5 crore. Of this sum, he was asked to pay Rs 50 lakh upfront and the remaining when the process to shortlist BJP’s candidates began, the FIR says, adding that “Vishwanath” had promised to return the entire amount if Poojary couldn’t get a ticket.
Three days later, Poojary allegedly handed the first installment of Rs 50 lakh to Kadur outside the RSS office in Shivamogga and soon received a call from Kundapura and Kadur that he had been shortlisted for the Byndoor seat.
Last October, the trio allegedly introduced Poojary to a person the FIR identifies as “Nayak” at Bengaluru’s Kumarakrupa state guest house. According to the FIR, “Nayak”, who also claimed to be part of the BJP’s central election committee, told Poojary that he had been finalised as a candidate for the Byndoor seat and that the remaining Rs 3 crore had to be paid according to Kadur’s instruction.
Poojary paid this money in October 2022, according to the FIR.
How the plot unraveled
Meanwhile, around the beginning of 2023, “Vishwanath” allegedly asked Poojary to meet Abhinava Halashree Swamy, an alleged Hindu religious leader who claimed to have a personal equation with the prime minister and other BJP leaders.
On his part, Swamy assured him of Vishwanath’s position in BJP’s selection committee and said he himself had been made in charge of Karnataka, the FIR says. In early January, Poojary allegedly paid Swamy Rs 1.5 crore at the latter’s residence in Bengaluru’s Vijayanagar.
It was only in March that Poojary began to get suspicions. That month, Kundapura and Kadur allegedly informed Poojary that Vishwanath had died of respiratory issues in Kashmir.
When a suspicious Poojary made enquiries about “Vishwanath”, he was allegedly told that there was no person in the RSS by that name.
The following month, he confronted Kundapura and Kadur, who told Poojary that the entire sum of Rs 3.5 crore was with “Vishwanath”, according to the FIR. Poojary also checked with Swamy, who allegedly told him that he was not well-acquainted with “Vishwanath” and would return Rs 1.5 crore paid to him at his insistence within a month.
Meanwhile, Kundapura and Kadur allegedly threatened to get Poojary arrested if he asked for the money he had paid.
According to the FIR, Poojary’s enquiries soon led him to find out that a person named Ramesh was given acting lessons and had been paid Rs 1.2 lakh to play Vishwanath. Likewise, a unnamed street vendor in Bengaluru, was allegedly paid Rs 93,000 to play the part of Nayak.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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