Representative image.
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Bengaluru: A woman, who claimed to be the sibling of Lokayukta Justice B S Patil, along with two others, allegedly attempted to extort a seer from Tiptur.
An FIR was registered by the Bengaluru police’s Central Crime Branch (CCB) on September 25 following a complaint by Rudramuni Swamiji from the Shadadkshara Mutt.
As per the FIR, on August 31, 2024, Vidya Biradar Patil, the suspect, called Rudramuni and told him that she was the president of the Karnataka Information Commission and the sister of Justice Patil.
She allegedly told the seer that two people — Pallavi D B and Surya Narayana – submitted a complaint before relating to some videos about the seer. She then reportedly began pestering him to meet her.
The seer reached out to his legal advisor Dhananjaya, an advocate, and gave him the phone number through which Vidya called.
When they met near a hotel in Gandhinagar in Bengaluru, Vidya told Dhananjaya that she had explicit videos related to the seer and demanded Rs 6 crore to not release them, as per the FIR.
As an immediate payment, Vidya demanded Rs 50 lakh, the seer alleged. She also allegedly threatened to post the videos on social media and ruin the seer’s name, as per the FIR.
The seer, however, claimed that the visuals were doctored, the FIR noted. A CCB officer said that an investigation had been launched but arrests were yet to be made.