The police are reportedly poised to issue a second summons to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kerala unit president K. Surendran for questioning in connection with the theft of unaccounted cash from a car at Kodakara in Thrissur on April 3.
Mr. Surendran had not answered the initial summons which asked him to appear before the investigating officer at the Thrissur Police Club on July 6.
The leader had pleaded inability to ensure personal appearance given the BJP State office-bearers’ meeting in Kasaragod. Moreover, the BJP had alleged that Mr. Surendran was the victim of a political witch-hunt. The party reportedly felt that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government hoped to score a propaganda win by making a political spectacle out of Mr. Surendran’s arrival at the Police Club.
The politically touchy case has its provenance in a complaint filed by a person that anonymous persons had ambushed his car and stolen ₹25 lakh on April 3, three days before the 2021 Assembly elections in the State. The complainant later moved the court stating that the cash was accounted for and was the proceeds from his business transactions.
The movement of unaccounted money in the run-up to the election piqued the interest of the police and election watchdogs.
The LDF had alleged that the black money belonged to the BJP. The party had used large sums of unaccounted money to influence the election and circumvent the statutory accounting of poll expenditure, it said.
The police have accused the BJP leadership of being in the know of the cash movement. An investigator said the police based the inference on mobile phone call data and statements. Officials were probing whether the movers of the cash had stage-managed the heist to hoodwink the party into thinking the incident was indeed a highway robbery, he said.
So far, the police have arrested 23 persons and recovered ₹1.75 crore out of the estimated ₹3 crore actually lost in the highway robbery. They have recorded the statement of 96 witnesses. On June 1, the police passed on the details of the crime to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Several questioned
The police have already questioned several top BJP leaders in connection with the “robbery.” Among them are State organising secretary of the party M. Ganesh, Thrissur district president K.K. Aneesh Kumar and BJP State headquarters office secretary G. Girish.
An official said the police might be constrained to move the court if Mr. Surendran failed to comply with the second summons.
Opposition charge
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan had repeatedly alleged that the LDF was using the Kodakara case to strike a detent with the BJP. The Central investigation into the gold case, centred around the previous LDF government, had sputtered to a halt after the hawala heist “involving” BJP leaders had surfaced. The Kodakara probe faced the risk of becoming a circus clown’s slapstick. The prop produced a loud smacking noise but delivered no impact, Mr. Satheesan had said.
