Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said in the state Legislative Assembly that BJP state president K Surendran was made a witness in the Kodakara hawala-linked highway robbery case as he was aware of it.
The Chief Minister was speaking in the Assembly as Congress MLA Roji M John gave adjournment notice to discuss the issue in the Assembly on Monday.
In the charge sheet filed by the Kerala Police, there are 250 witnesses, including Surendran and 17 state and district office-bearers of the BJP.
The CM said that during the investigation, it was found that accused Dharmarajan is a sympathiser of BJP and is in close relation with Surendran, state coordinating secretary Ganesh, state office secretary Gireeshan Nair.
On the floor of the House, Vijayan further stated that the money that was found in Kodakara was part of spending huge amounts of money for influencing the election.
The CM said, “Surendran and other leaders were made the witness because they were aware of this. However, the investigation regarding this financial transaction needs to continue. When the investigation continues, based on the evidence that emerges, these people could also become accused. It is quite natural. They will be answerable at that time about how this money came. So naturally, they will become accused. We need to realise that it is the natural course of action in this case.”
“Ahead of the elections, around Rs 40 crore was brought to Kerala from February 5 to April 5, 2021, to be handed over to the BJP office bearers in different districts. In that Rs 4.40 crore, on February 6, Rs 3.50 crore was stolen at Kodakara,” he added.
The main contention of the Congress was that the State government has not entrusted the central agencies with inquiring into the source of the cash. The Opposition also alleged that this is part of an understanding between the CPM and the BJP.
There are 22 accused in the case and the Chief Minister said that the fourth accused is a BJP worker.
He added that the investigation found that Dharmarajan is working as a hawala agent.
Vijayan said, “The charge sheet says that under the direction of these BJP leaders, the money was brought from Karnataka for party’s election work. It has been found that under Gireeshan Nair’s direction, this was being sent to Alappuzha District Treasurer Gopalakrishnan Kartha.”
From this Rs 3.5 crore, Rs 1.46 crore worth of cash and materials were found.
The details of the case have been given to the Enforcement Directorate on June 1, 2021. He added that the State cannot entrust central agencies with the investigation but the State police findings have been informed to the central agencies.
He also took a political dig at the Congress and asked whether they believe the central agencies that much.
Vijayan said, “if central agency enquires about the money that was brought by BJP, you know what will happen. It’s not because UDF doesn’t know that. They believe BJP and central agencies that much. Anyone can understand for whom they are doing this. This is for BJP. The initial complaint in the case by Shajeer was that Rs 25 lakh was stolen from a car after a group waylaid them and took it but the investigation found that there were Rs 3.5 crore in the vehicle that was stolen. This happened on April 2021, just three days ahead of the State Assembly elections.
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