KASARAGOD: The Kasaragod sessions court denied anticipatory bail to BJP state committee member and senior lawyer Balakrishna Shetty in the Manjeshwar election bribery case.
Shetty is the fifth accused and BJP state president K Surendran is the first accused in the case.
In all, six BJP leaders and workers were indicted for allegedly kidnapping and forcing BSP candidate K Sundara to withdraw his nomination papers filed to contest the Manjeshwar election in April 2021.
They were charged with the stringent Section 3 (1) (l) (B) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which deals with forcing or intimidating a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community to withdraw his nomination papers. Sundara belongs to the Mogar Scheduled Caste.
In a 14-page order, judge C Krishna Kumar said he was dismissing the petition for anticipatory bail because "in my view, there exists a prima facie case regarding the complicity of the petitioner" in the alleged offence.
And if there is a prima facie case under the SC/ ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, there is a bar on giving anticipatory bail under Section 18 of the same Act, special public prosecutor C Shukkur had argued in the court.
Shetty -- who is also a notary public appointed by the Union government -- told the court that he had helped prepare the withdrawal papers of Sundara as a lawyer and that should not be held against him.
He also said that Sundara had given a statement to Badiadka police on March 22, 2021, the day he withdrew his nomination papers saying he was not threatened or pressured to pull out of the election.
Shetty said the complaint of election bribery was filed by CPM's Manjeshwar candidate V V Rameshan, who came third in the election, in June 2021. Rameshan had named only BJP state president Surendran as an accused. The five other BJP leaders were named in a police report and charged with SC-ST Prevention of Atrocities Act after a year in June 2022, he said.
The special public prosecutor asked the court not to take into account Sundara's statement given to Badiadka police because the police were not authorised to take any statement without registering a crime. "The statement can only be treated as a stage-managed by the petitioner and others to escape the clutches of law," Shukkur argued in court.
He said the accused had illegally detained Sundara from the morning of March 21 to the evening of March 22, 2021, threatened Sundara's mother, and forced him to withdraw his nomination papers by giving him Rs 2.5 lakh and a mobile phone worth Rs 8,300. Police had seized the new phone.
Shukkur said that by Shetty's own admission, he had helped Sundara withdraw his nomination papers and that was sufficient to establish a prima facie case against the petitioner. The complicity of other accused persons, including Shetty, was revealed during the investigation, he said.
The other persons indicted in the case are BJP district secretary Manikanda Rai; BJP's Manjeshwar constituency secretary Suresha Y; Surendran's confidant in Kozhikode Sunil Kumar alias Sunil Naik; and party worker Logesh Londa.
The prosecution said Sundara was made to withdraw his nomination papers because Surendran lost the 2016 election in Manjeshwar by 89 votes and Sundara, as an independent candidate, polled 467 votes. The BJP thought Sundara contributed to the defeat of Surendran.
The judge in his order said that Sundara had given his statement to the police on June 10 and 11, 2021. His statement was also recorded by a magistrate on June 29, 2021. "On going through those statements, it is found that the victim divulged the complicity of the petitioner in the above crime," the judge said in his order, denying pre-arrest bail to Shetty.
The BJP leader said he would approach the high court because there is a real threat of arrest. "The Kerala police are acting on the cues of the CPM. They arrested (former MLA K S) Sabarinadhan.