Man claims to be Union Minister Kishan Reddy's aide, dupes TN BJP ticket aspirant of Rs 50 lakh

A BJP office-bearer has lodged a complaint alleging that a man claiming to be an assistant of union minister Kishan Reddy duped him of Rs 50 lakh by falsely promising party ticket to contest the April 6 Assembly polls and an FIR has been registered, police said on Friday.

He, however, did not get party ticket to contest from any Assembly constituency.

Reddy was the party election incharge for Tamil Nadu Assembly polls.

''We have filed an FIR (cheating) against four men, Narothaman, his father Chittibabu, Vijayaraman and Siva Balaji,'' a police inspector said, adding Narothaman and Chittibabu were said to be residents of Hyderabad and others hailed from here.

A senior police officer confirmed the registration of FIR but declined to elaborate on the veracity of the complaint and if Narothaman had been Reddy's assistant or if he is presently associated with the minister.

''We sought legal opinion too before registering this FIR,'' he told PTI.

When asked if Bhuvanesh Kumar was indeed a party functionary, a BJP state-level office bearer confirmed that he was a party office-bearer based in Arani.

Asked if he was aware of the complaint, he answered in the affirmative.

On what action the party contemplated against him, he said, ''we were surprised and shocked when we got to know about this claim of giving money to get party ticket.''

''Such a thing cannot happen in this party. Bhuvanesh was a recent entrant to the BJP. He was previously with another party. As an initial action, we have recommended that he be removed from his party post.'' On the claim that Narothaman had been Reddy's ''assistant'' during the run up to polls, he said,''we have never heard of this name. We don't know who he is.''