Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Abhinava Halaswamy, the seer of the Shri Halaswami Mahasamsthana Mutt in Hirehadagali near Hosapete, was apprehended in Odisha after spending the previous 10 days on the run with the CCB hot on his heels for allegedly defrauding a businessman by promising a BJP ticket to run from the Byndoor Assembly constituency. The seer, who had been moving around ever since right-wing activist Chaitra Kundapura was detained on September 8 in connection with a complaint made by Govind Babu Pujari, was allegedly detained on a train on Monday night as it was en route from Bhubaneswar to Varanasi. He is listed as Accuser No. 3 in the case of cheating.
“After a case was filed against him, the defendant fled. He kept shifting locations as our staff tried to learn more about him. He first traveled to Mysuru and remained there in a motel while setting up many cell phones and SIM cards. He thereafter departed for Hyderabad. When he learned that his auto driver had been detained for interrogation, he escaped to Odisha, according to an officer.
When he called a close aide here, the police got a tip that he was in Bhubaneswar and on his way to Varanasi. “Shortly after, the Odisha police were informed and given the accused’s information.On Tuesday night, the Cuttack police were able to apprehend him as he was traveling by rail to Varanasi, the officer said. He said that the accused was not wearing his customary “khavi” (saffron) attire when he was brought into prison in order to avoid being easily recognized.
Following his imprisonment, a CCB team hurried to Odisha. The complainant said that he had provided the seer Rs 1.5 crore in accordance with Chaitra’s instructions, and that the seer had accepted the money in his home in Bengaluru’s Vijayanagar neighborhood while claiming to know PM Modi and be able to help the complainant obtain the ticket. In the meantime, Chitra had asserted that once the seer was detained by the CCB, the names of “big people” would surface.
