Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Kerala state President K Surendran said that he cannot appear for questioning in the Kodakara hawala case on July 6 as he has to attend a state-level party meeting the same day. The office-bearers meeting had been scheduled much earlier and he cannot avoid it, he told reporters on Monday, July 5. Alleging that questioning him was a political move, he said that the police’s intentions are to save the state government from the gold smuggling and tree-felling cases.
Surendran was issued a notice on July 2 at his house in Kozhikode to appear for questioning at the Thrissur Police Club on the 6th. The case concerns a cash robbery from a car in Thrissur district in April this year, allegedly involving nine men. This incident happened just three days before the Kerala Assembly elections.
The driver of the car from whom the money was stolen claimed that Rs 25 lakh was missing. However, the police later said that the amount was around Rs 3.5 crore and that it was hawala money from Bengaluru intended for the BJP. AK Dharmajan, one of the complainants, had told the police that the money was transported from Bengaluru on the instructions of the BJP's Kerala officer secretary Gireeshan Nair and organising secretary Ganesh.
Watch: Surendran on not appearing before police
The police also alleged that there were records of multiple calls between Dharmajan and Harikrishnan, Surendran’s son.
However, Dharmajan and two other complainants, Shamjeer and Sunil, moved a Thrissur court alleging that the money was transported for business purposes and it belonged to them. They wanted the money returned to them.
The police have arrested more than 20 people in the case so far.
Last month, a court in Kerala had also granted permission to register a case against Surendran on the allegations that he offered money to Janathipathya Rashtriya Party (JRP) leader CK Janu to contest in the April elections.