KOZHIKODE: K Ajitha, president of Anweshi, told reporters here on Saturday that industrialist V M Radhakrishnan, a close aide of P K Kunhalikutty, had met her demanding to give up the ice cream parlour case. "Radhakrishnan visited me along with a police official in 2001 when Kunhalikutty was a state minister," she said.
"Radhakrishnan, who came in disguise as Vijayan, an industrialist from Coimbatore, claimed himself to be a friend of P K Kunhalikutty and promised that he would help me become the chairperson of Kerala Social Welfare Board, if I step back from the case," said Ajitha. "He demanded me to take a passive attitude, instead of giving up the case completely," she added.
Ajitha said that K A Rauf, the then friend of Kunhalikutty, had also met her with the same demand. "Kunhalikutty's agents offered me Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore for not involving in the case," she added. "The unexpected developments in the icecream case is like a bomb shell and we believe that the government and the police will be able to conduct proper inquiry and punish the culprit," said Ajitha.
Ajitha reiterated her stance that Kunhalikutty had adopted improper ways to get exonerated from the case by citing the statements of K A Rauf regarding the forging of 164 statement, pumping of money for influencing the witnesses, the police and even the judiciary.
"While Zaheera Sheikh, a witness in the Best Bakery case was heard for one-and-a-half months, when she changed her statement, the hearing of Rajeena and three other witnesses in the icecream parlour case was completed in a couple of hours," criticised Ajitha. The witnesses who changed their statement were asked only one or two questions, added the president of Anweshi.
"It is also suspected that there was something fishy when the case reached the Supreme Court," said Ajitha, citing that when the government counsel requested for one week extension for the hearing of the case, which is not a usual custom, the judges denied permission.
