BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa was arrested on Monday hours after the Karnataka High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea in a bribery case in which his son was arrested earlier.

The Channagiri MLA was the chairman of state-run Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited, makers of the famous Mysore Sandal soap. He had stepped down from the chairmanship of the company soon after the arrest of his son Prashanth Madal.

Virupakshappa had moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail, after the court granted him interim anticipatory bail on March 7, just days after Lokayukta police wing busted the scam and arrested his son and four others for demanding bribes on behalf of the MLA.

A single-judge bench of Justice K. Natarajan that dismissed his anticipatory bail plea had on March 17 reserved the order for Monday after hearing Virupakshappa and the prosecution.

Trouble began for the BJP MLA after the Lokayukta police wing caught his son, Prashanth Madal, the chief accountant of the BangaloreWater Supply and Sewerage Board, on March 2 while accepting a Rs 40-lakh bribe on behalf of his father.

The amount was allegedly part of the Rs 81-lakh bribe he was to collect for his lawmaker father from a supplier of raw materials for the soaps and detergent company.