BENGALURU: A day after filing a cheating complaint of Rs 2 crore against Union Minister Pralhad Joshi’s brother Gopal Joshi, ‘sister’ Vijayalakshmi and Gopal’s son Ajay, complainant Sunitha Chavan (48), wife of former Nagthan JDS MLA Devanand Fulsingh Chavan, claimed they had reached a compromise.
Meanwhile, Pralhad Joshi said he does not have a sister, and mentioning Vijayalakshmi as his sister in the FIR is nonfactual, and that he and Gopal have been separated for more than 32 years.
Sunitha, a resident of Yeshwanthpur, told TNIE the case will be withdrawn. Reacting to Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara’s statement that three people were arrested and police are searching for Gopal, Sunitha claimed that nobody was arrested as the issue had been resolved.
Sunitha said she has no enmity with them, and the money given to them belonged to three or four others and was being transferred back to their respective bank accounts.
Basaveshwaranagar police registered an FIR on Thursday. “The complainant has to approach court to withdraw the complaint by filing a compromise petition... we will record her statement under Section 164 CrPC,” police said.
According to her complaint, one Shekhar Nayak introduced them to Gopal, promising a Lok Sabha seat. Nayak took them to Gopal’s Hubballi residence in March. They were then taken to Pralhad Joshi’s office. Gopal allegedly asked them to keep Rs 5 crore for the seat as his brother Pralhad was very influential, the complaint stated.
When they left, stating they cannot arrange the money, Gopal called them to arrange for Rs 25 lakh. Sunitha went to Vijayalakshmi’s house in Basaveshwaranagar and gave the money, besides a cheque for Rs 5 crore to Gopal.
Sunitha said they did not get the party ticket and Gopal started giving excuses when asked for the money. He convinced them to arrange another Rs 1.75 crore as a Rs 200-crore project bill was pending, and he would return their money. The complainant wired the amount to Vijayalakshmi’s account and gave Gopal another Rs 50 lakh the same day.
On August 1, when Sunitha visited Vijayalakshmi’s residence, she was reportedly assaulted and subjected to casteist slurs. Police invoked sections of cheating along with BNS sections related to criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.