Thrissur: The special investigation team will question BJP state president K Surendran in the case pertaining to the robbery of Rs 3.5 crore after staging a car accident along the National Highway at Kodakara.
Three people had given statements that Surendran was in charge of managing the party fund. However, the questioning is unlikely to take place soon. State leaders, including Surendran, are likely to be summoned during the final stage of the investigation. Assistant Commissioner V K Raju, who is heading the probe, said that currently Surendran has not been issued notice.
State leaders, including Surendran, took a call on the amount to be given to various constituencies, according to the statements. And this is the reason why they would be called in for questioning. However, there is still no clarity on if this was the party fund.
The investigation team has been instructed to proceed without any blemish as the case has garnered media and national attention. The robbery and hawala money could be deemed as two cases. Also, after collecting evidence in the hawala case, the information is likely to handed over to the Enforcement Directorate. So far, the BJP office-bearers have not been arraigned as accused in the robbery case.
Meanwhile, K Surendran has said that BJP does not have any connection to the Kodakara incident.
"Neither is that the money of BJP. The police are summoning those on the complainant's phone list for questioning. The BJP leaders were called in for questioning for no reason. Unlike CPM leaders, BJP leaders are not feigning chest pain or claiming to be Covid positive as there is nothing to be afraid of," he added.
One more held, BJP leader questioned
One more person has been arrested in the Kodakara highway heist case. Sulfikar, a native of Mankada in Malappuram and aide of the 12th accused Basheer, was nabbed on Thursday.
The police also recovered Rs 50,000 from the house of Naushad, the friend of Basheer's wife Jameela. And 9.5 sovereigns of gold from the house of 20th accused Deepthi.
Meanwhile, the police questioned L Padmakumar, BJP's central zone organising secretary in charge of four districts including Alappuzha. He was questioned for almost two hours on Thursday. Padmakumar maintained that neither he nor his party had any link to the case.
The police have also collected evidence of a state leader having contacted RSS member Dharmarajan 29 times over three days. Also in the hawala heist case, the complaint was only given about the loss of Rs 25 lakh. The police suspect that Dharmarajan's ploy was to find the robbery gang with the help of the cops and get back the rest of the money.
The BJP district leadership had also allegedly met with the accused and the police deem this to be crucial evidence. The cops have also got information as to on whose instructions the meeting took place.
