A court in Kerala's Kasaragod, on Saturday, October 5, gave a clean chit to state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President K Surendran and others, who have been named as accused in an election bribery case relating to the 2021 polls. The case was based on a petition filed by CPI(M) leader VV Rameshan, a Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate from the Manjeswaram constituency during the April 2021 Assembly elections.

When votes were counted, Surendran came a close second to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate who won the election by a margin of 745 votes.

The petitioner Rameshan demanded the arrest of BJP leaders who allegedly paid money, gave mobile phones, and promised other favours to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate K Sundara to withdraw his nomination from Manjeswaram during the elections. Sundara later alleged that he was given money and mobiles to withdraw his candidature in favour of Surendran.

The court, however, let off Surendran and five local BJP leaders who were earlier included as accused, accepting their discharge petition filed by them after they claimed they had done no wrong.

Surendran, who was present in the court, later told the media that the case was a fabricated one in which the CPI(M), the Congress, the Indian Union Muslim League, and a section of the media conspired against him.

“Right from day one, I have been telling you that this is a fabricated case based on a conspiracy. They wanted to ensure that I was banned from contesting elections. Incidentally, the case was filed by Rameshan and it was much later that Sundara joined in the case. We were confident of this day as we knew we had done no wrong at all,” he said.

It was the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police that probed this case and submitted its charge sheet. The probe police team which has submitted its preliminary report included charges under the SC/ST Act, besides others which included bribery to sabotage elections. "We were totally surprised when we saw the charges, there was a charge under the SC/ST Act too. So now everything has been blown away,” added Surendran.

Meanwhile, Rameshan said he will definitely file an appeal petition against this verdict "as everyone knows that bribes were given".