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Bengaluru: Seer remanded in 10-day police custody in cash-for-ticket case
The seer was produced before the Additional City Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court, which adjourned the petition moved by the seer seeking bail to September 29
A day after the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested seer Abhinava Halashree in the cash-for-ticket scam from Cuttack in Odisha, a court in Bengaluru remanded him to 10-day police custody.
The seer was produced before the Additional City Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court, which adjourned the petition moved by the seer seeking bail to September 29.
The seer, accused number three in the FIR, is the eighth suspect to be arrested in the case. Police arrested main aacused Chaitra Kundapur and six others on September 12 on charges of cheating businessman Govind Babu Pujari (44) of ₹5 crore by falsely promising him a BJP ticket to contest the assembly elections from Byndoor in Udupi district.
According to the FIR, the businessman had paid ₹1.5 crore to the seer and ₹3.5 crore to Kundapur and her associates.
The CCB officials on Tuesday arrested the seer who was on the run after the arrest of seven of his associates. A special team tracking him down intercepted him on a train near Cuttack.
The seer had allegedly bought four new SIM cards and four basic mobile phones before fleeing from Mysuru, a CCB official in the know of the developments said, adding that the search was spread over Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and many cities in Karnataka.
“He was constantly changing his hideouts. He had travelled to Hyderabad, Srisailam, Puri Jagannath and Bhubaneshwar. He had also abandoned his saffron robes and was wearing a pullover and T-shirt,” a CCB official said.
On September 14, Kundapur had claimed that names of several bigwigs would be out once the seer is arrested. “Once the swamiji is arrested, the truth will come out. Several bigwigs’ names will be out,” Kundapur had said when she was being taken inside the CCB office.
The seer is also said to have introduced complainant Pujari to former chief minister BS Yediyurappa before the elections in May, as a show of his connections. Pictures of the seer along with Yediyurappa and Pujari have been widely circulated on social media.
Meanwhile, Kundapur, who is the accused number 1 in the case, was brought to the CCB office in Chamarajapet on Wednesday and was interrogated separately in the case.
The CCB police have seized cash, gold and fixed deposits worth ₹3 crore in connection with the case so far.
