Bengaluru: The sister, brother and nephew of Union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pralhad Joshi have been accused of fraud, intimidation and using casteist slurs by a former Janata Dal (Secular) MLA and his wife.
Sunitha Chavan, wife of former Karnataka MLA Devanand Fulasing Chavan, has filed a complaint against Gopal Joshi (brother), Vijayalakshmi Joshi (sister) and Ajay Joshi (nephew) for allegedly cheating them of Rs 2.5 crore under the garb of securing a BJP ticket for them for this year’s Lok Sabha elections.
According to the FIR, Gopal told Sunita that the money was for “Amit Shah’s secretary”.
The couple lodged the FIR Thursday under Sections 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 118(1) (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) , 318(4)(cheating), 61 and 3(5) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and multiple sections of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
“Once Gopal Joshi even added me on a conference call with someone that he referred to as Amit Shah’s secretary. How would I know who that was on a phone call?” Sunitha told ThePrint.
She added that the three accused took Rs 25 lakhs from them directly, and sought financial help for others, which included an additional Rs 1.75 crore for which Ajay acted as the guarantor.
According to the complaint, Shekhar Nayak, a government engineer from Athani, introduced the Chavans to Gopal, and told them that BJP and JD(S) were contesting the polls as allies.
The couple allegedly first met Gopal sometime in March at the latter’s home in Hubballi, where he told them that the minister Pralhad Joshi wielded great “influence” in the Union government and that “Modi and Amit Shah listen to him”. They even allegedly spoke about the deal in Pralhad Joshi’s office in Hubballi.
The BJP, which has been targeting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the Mysuru Urban Development Authority ‘scam’ in Karnataka, now finds itself defending its senior leader’s family against the allegations of fraud and other serious charges.
Gopal is an employee of Canara Bank and was accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation of causing a loss of Rs 1.38 crore in 2013. He was given a clean chit by a CBI court the following year.
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What the FIR says
Gopal promised to get them a party ticket for the Vijayapura seat (reserved for SCs) in exchange for Rs 5 crore. “At the time, my husband said he did not have that kind of money and we came back home,” said Sunitha in the complaint.
The next day, Gopal called them at 11 am, asking them to give Rs 25 lakhs first, and issue a cheque for the remainder.
The former MLA said that he did not even have Rs 25 lakhs and disconnected the call.
Gopal had asked for the money to be brought to Vijayalakshmi’s house in Bengaluru’s Basaveshwaranagar.
Sunitha also received calls from Gopal and Nayak, who claimed that the Chavans were missing out on a “good opportunity”. She then asked for a day’s time to think about the offer, but was persuaded by them to make arrangements for the money the same day.
“I then borrowed money from friends and relatives and the same night took it to Gopal’s sister’s house, as specified,” Sunitha said in the FIR. Gopal allegedly told her that the money was not for himself, but had to be paid to “Amit Shah’s secretary”. He then spoke to someone on the phone and claimed that the “ticket is confirmed”. They even took a cheque as security and sent her back home, Sunitha has alleged.
But Devanand was not eventually given the ticket from the constituency, and when the couple asked for their money and the cheque to be returned, they were asked to go to Vijayalakshmi’s house in Bengaluru.
According to the FIR, the cheque was returned, but the money was not. Vijayalakshmi allegedly told them that she was owed nearly Rs 200 crores by the government for executing governmental work and that the Chavan’s would be paid back, when she would get paid. Gopal and Vijayalakshmi also convinced them to give money to a few others, for which Ajay acted as the guarantor. This included Rs 1.75 crore and Rs 50 lakh in two installments.
However, later, multiple calls to meet the three and retrieve the money went allegedly unanswered. On 1 August, when the couple went to Vijayalakshmi’s house again, she said she had no money and asked them to file a case, using used casteist slurs and threatening them. Some men were also allegedly brought in to threaten the two.
Not the first such case
In September last year, Bengaluru-based businessman Govind Poojary had accused a pro-Hindu ideologue, Chaitra Kundapura, of orchestrating an elaborate drama to cheat him of Rs 5 crore for the promise of securing an assembly election ticket from Byndoor in Udupi. Kundapura had even got a local barber and street food vendor to pose as senior BJP and RSS functionaries to dupe the businessman.
Former Karnataka minister and senior BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa was named in the suicide note of a pro-Hindu worker and private contractor for demanding bribes to clear bills. Eshwarappa was forced to step down as minister, and was eventually expelled from the party after his public rants against Yediyurappa and his son, B.Y. Vijayendra, for not securing a ticket for his son in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the Haveri-Gadag seat.
In May 2022, senior BJP leader Basanagouda Patil Yatnal had alleged that he was approached by someone claiming to be a senior functionary in his own party and offered to make him the CM, if a payment of Rs 2,500 crores was made.
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