Con men held for blackmailing ISKCON staffer

Ousted for demanding commission on donations, the duo fabricate DVD accusing temple staffer of illegitimate deals and extract Rs 3 lakh

Con men held for blackmailing ISKCON staffer

Ousted for demanding commission on donations, the duo fabricate DVD accusing temple staffer of illegitimate deals and extract Rs 3 lakh

M S Balaji alias Balaji Subhash, a controversial lobbyist and pawnbroker whose name has cropped up in several land deals in the state, was arrested by the city police for cheating and blackmailing an administrative officer of ISKCON temple.

A priest performing pooja during Jagannath Rath, which was organised by ISKCON

He had already extracted Rs 3 lakh from D A Kodandaram by threatening him to expose him for allegedly conducting illegitimate deals through the temple trust.

Crafty approach
Claiming to have powerful contacts in the corporate world, Balaji approached temple priest, Ratan Das to clinch a deal. He offered to get donors for ISKCON prestigious Akshaya Patra project (which carries out the mid-day meal scheme of the government of India).
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He, however, was driven away because he demanded 20 per cent as commission for every donation he got from his corporate contacts.

In February, he again met the temple management with Bharat Reddy claiming to be a reputed businessman and expressed his willingness to donate of Rs 1 crore.

The duo handed over a cheque for the project in the name of Naveen Subramanya. Later, it was discovered that the cheque was fake.

Threats continue
In March the administration received a parcel from Balaji containing a DVD with a recorded conversation between Balaji and Kodandaram. Balaji managed to extract Rs 3 lakh from him by threatening to leak to DVD to the media.

As demands for more money continued through phone calls, SMS and emails, the authorities decided to file a complaint.

Kodandaram, who filed a complaint said, "The conversation on the DVD has been fabricated with malicious intent to tarnish the image of ISKCON."

Based on the complaint, the Subramanya Nagar police raided the house of the accused and arrested him, along with his associate Naveen Sheshadri.

"We have recovered Rs 3 lakh, hidden cameras, laptop,u00a0 and two mobile phones from him, which he used to record the conversation clandestinely with intent to blackmail," said Police Inspector S Sridhar.