THRISSUR: A special investigation team led by Thrissur Range DIG A Akbar on Saturday interrogated BJP state office secretary G Gireesh in connection with the looting of hawala money at Kodakara here on April 3. Sources said that the BJP leader refuted all allegations regarding his involvement as a party worker in the hawala transaction.
Gireesh was questioned for about three-and-a-half hours at Thrissur Police Club. In his statement Gireesh told the SIT that he contacted Dharmarajan, an RSS activist and the one who entrusted him with the task of taking the money from Kozhikode to Kochi, as a part of organizational matters. Meanwhile, Dharmarajan, who has been in police custody, had named Gireesh and BJP general secretary M Ganesh in his statement to the police. Gireesh had also given a statement that the party had no involvement in the hawala transaction.
Meanwhile, mother of one of the main accused in the case, Martin, surrendered gold ornaments worth Rs 5 lakh that she bought using the money Martin and his gang looted after faking an accident. The probe team is still on the hunt for more accused in the case and is trying to trace Rs 3.5 crore which was being carried in the vehicle. One of the main challenges before the probe team is to dig out the entire hawala money that was looted by the gang.
Following the incident, a case was registered as per the complaint lodged by Shamjeer, Dharmarajan’s driver. While the complainant told the police that only K25 lakh was looted by miscreants who intercepted the car that was bound for Kochi, the probe team has already recovered more than K50 lakh. Police sources said it was clear from the statements of Dharmarajan and Shamjeer that the money came from Karnataka and was meant for election campaign of a national party.