KOCHI : In a major setback to Congress state president K Sudhakaran ahead of the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, the Crime Branch has filed a chargesheet against him in the cheating case related to conman Monson Mavunkal at Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court. Monson and Youth Congress leader Abin Abraham were also named in the chargesheet.
The chargesheet was filed for cheating and criminal conspiracy. The Crime Branch had found that Monson took `25 lakh from a businessman based in Kozhikode, of which `10 lakh was handed over to Sudhakaran. The investigators maintained that Sudhakaran facilitated the cheating as Monson was using his connections with the Congress state president to dupe several people. Similarly, after realising that Monson was a quack, he did not report it to authorities. Sudhakaran had claimed that he visited Monson for skin treatment. Earlier, Sudhakaran was questioned by the Crime Branch for over eight hours last year.
The Crime Branch has not included IG G Lakshman, former deputy inspector general S Surendran and his wife Bindu Lekha in the chargesheet.
The investigation agency had arraigned them as accused in the case last year. Crime Branch officials maintained that the investigation against Lakshman, Surendran and Bindu is still on. A supplementary chargesheet after including their names would be filed at a later stage, they said.
Will move HC to quash case: Sudhakaran
Arraigned as the second accused in the fraud case involving Monson Mavunkal, Congress state president K Sudhakaran on Tuesday said he will move the High Court seeking to quash the case. The KPCC chief alleged he was made second accused to divert people’s attention from the J S Sidharthan’s death, non-payment of salary and pension by government and rise in human-animal conflicts. He also claimed the move was taken in view of the Lok Sabha elections