The CCB sleuths take Abhinava Halashree Swami, an accused in Chaithra Kundapur case, to the Halaswami Mutt at Hirehadagali in Huvinahadagali taluk of Vijayanagar district on Wednesday night.
DH Photo
Abhinava Halashree Swami, an accused in the Chaithra Kundapur case, allegedly had his driver keep Rs 60 lakh with a man in Mysuru.
The money was part of the Rs 1.5 crore that the seer allegedly received from Indira Canteen contractor Govind Babu Poojari by promising him the BJP ticket to contest the May assembly election from Baindoor, Udupi district.
Hindutva activist Chaithra Kundapur, the party’s Chikkamagaluru Yuva Morcha general secretary Gagan Kadur, the seer and four others allegedly collected Rs 5 crore from Poojari by promising him the ticket. Some of them allegedly posed as senior leaders from the BJP and the RSS, according to police.
The seer, who heads a mutt near Hosapete, was picked by the Bengaluru police’s Central Crime Branch (CCB) in Odisha on September 18. Other suspects were arrested last week.
While a Bengaluru court remanded the seer in CCB custody for nine days on Wednesday, a viral video purportedly showed a Mysuru-based man related to him returning Rs 56 lakh to the mutt. The money was reportedly handed to the Mysuru man by the seer’s car driver Raju.
The CCB officials now plan to seize the Rs 56 lakh as well as the rest of the money taken by the seer.
A senior CCB officer said the CCB received the video from the Hosapete superintendent of police. According to the officer, the man in the video is Pranav and he received Rs 60 lakh from the seer’s driver.
“Since he has returned the money, he becomes our evidence,” the officer said. “We have sent a team to seize the money from Hosapete. The rest of the money will be recovered soon,” the officer told DH.
The video purportedly shows Pranav saying he was given Rs 60 lakh by Raju, the seer’s driver, at his Mysuru office. Since no one came to take it back, he was returning it to the mutt headed by seer, he is heard saying in the video.