THRISSUR: BJP state president K Surendran has been summoned for interrogation in connection with the Kodakara hawala heist case. A notice of summons from the special investigation team led by Thrissur Range DIG A Akbar was served on Surendran at his home in Ulliyeri in Kozhikode on Friday.
According to the police, Surendran has been directed to be present at the Thrissur Police Club at 10am on July 6 for interrogation. It remains to be seen whether Surendran will appear before investigators as the BJP leadership has recently decided not to cooperate with the probe.
The highway hawala heist that happened on April 3 at Kodakara was later proved to be the handiwork of a gang reportedly with the connivance of a section of BJP workers who had been aware of the presence of Rs 3.5 crore in the car that met with an accident. A few days later, the driver of the car filed a police complaint alleging a gang of nine robbed him of Rs 25 lakh.
Quizzing based on statements of Dharmarajan
Later, the police questioned Dharmarajan, an RSS worker having connection with senior BJP leaders, who had sent the money to some locations in south Kerala allegedly for final phase campaign for the assembly election. The probe team decided to question Surendran based on the statements of Dharmarajan and a few others interrogated. During investigation, it was revealed that Dharmarajan had called senior BJP leaders, including Surendran, soon after the incident.
When questioned, BJP central zone organising secretary L Padmakumar gave a statement that only state president knew about fund transactions of the party. Surendran’s secretary Dipin and driver Libeesh had acknowledged that they knew Dharmarajan and he had connections with Surendran. The police have also recovered `1.5 crore from different hideouts of the heist gang and search is on to find out the remaining `2 crore. Raids carried out at the hideouts and houses of the suspects didn’t yield any result.
The BJP leadership has officially denied all allegations and even questioned the motive of the probe team. Leaders, including Union Minister of State V Muraleedharan, had alleged that the police were haunting the complainant in the case rather than going after the robbers.“Police are investigating Dharmarajan’s call records, while the call records of accused persons, who have been arrested, are not probed,” Muraleedharan had said recently.