KASARGOD: BJP state president K Surendran said the Crime Branch invoked the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against him in the election bribery case to divert attention from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s alleged role in the gold and dollar smuggling case.
The police revived the one-year-old election bribery case after coming to know that gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh was giving a confidential statement to the magistrate indicting the chief minister, he alleged. The SC/ST Atrocities Act will not stand the scrutiny of law, he said. “It is illegally invoked against me,” Surendran said and added that the party would take legal action against the Crime Branch officers who misused the law.
If the Crime Branch had any evidence against BJP leaders, it would have submitted the chargesheet before the court. “But no. After investigating for one year, it filed an interim report, and that too after coming to know of Swapna’s move,” he said. If Pinarayi Vijayan thinks he can silence the opposition by filing a fake case against them, he is mistaken, Surendran said.