THRISSUR/KASARAGOD: The Congress on Friday alleged that CPM and BJP have struck a deal, saying the special investigation team (SIT), which will submit the chargesheet in the Kodakara hawala money heist case next week, is learnt to have not included any leader of the Sangh Parivar party in it though many of its leaders including state president K Surendran were questioned.
Sources revealed that BJP leaders have neither been named accused nor listed witnesses in the chargesheet in the case, which was registered on April 3 after RSS sympathiser Dharamarajan’s driver Shamjeer lodged a complaint with the police alleging that Rs 25 lakh was looted by a gang after waylaying his vehicle on the flyover at Kodakara. The investigation found Rs 3.5 crore was robbed in total, of which Rs 1.27 crore was recovered.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan told reporters in Kasaragod that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan did not go to New Delhi to take up matters of Kerala’s development but to participate in the “final phase of negotiation” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bury the investigation against the LDF government. He said the CPM-led government is using the Kodakara highway robbery case as a bargaining chip to strike a deal with the Union government to compromise on the investigation into the gold smuggling and related cases. Twenty-two people accused in the Kodakara heist case were arrested, as per the police report.
Police sources said BJP leaders were questioned to find out the source of the money, its purpose and where it was being transported before filing the chargesheet. They said further investigation has to be carried out by the Enforcement Directorate to find out the source of the money. Satheesan said the Kerala High Court, while rejecting the bail applications of 10 accused in the case, had observed that the investigation was a smokescreen.
“I had said this in the assembly on June 7,” the Opposition leader said. “The police have strong evidence linking the money to the Sangh Parivar, BJP and party president Surendran. But the police sent the notice to question Surendran only after three months. Why is a witness in a case called for questioning after three months,” he asked.
Satheesan said the chief minister could have taken Surendran along with him so that they could have struck a compromise in the presence of the prime minister. Buttressing his allegation, the Opposition leader said the chief minister did not meet the Union health minister to take up the issue of vaccine shortage or the finance minister to demand compensation for the emigrants who have died of Covid in foreign countries.