Manjeshwar: K Surendran, the President of the Kerala unit of the BJP, has appeared for interrogation over a poll-related bribery case reported in the wake of the Kerala Legislative Assembly election last summer.
The case pertains to the alleged threatening and bribing of K Sundara, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate for the Manjeshwar constituency, in order to make him withdraw from the fray.
The Deputy Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) in Kasaragode district is probing the case.
The venue of the interrogation is the Kasaragode Guest House.Surendran said that the investigation is politically motivated and that he appeared for the interrogation as he has trust in the judiciary. He also told the crime branch that he does not know K Sundara and has not stayed in a hotel in Thalipadappu.
Sundara, who had withdrawn from the contest midway had revealed that the BJP paid him Rs 2.5 lakh and a mobile phone. He was also offered a licence for wine parlour and a residence in Karnataka if the BJP won.
The case was registered as per the directions of a magistrate court which considered a petition filed by VV Ramesan, the CPM candidate who fought the election against Surendran in Manjeswar.
As of now, Surendran is the only accused in the case. His party likely feared that Sundara, whose name resembles Surendran, would corner many votes that would accrue to the latter as had happened in the 2016 state elections. Both were in the fray then too and Surendran had lost the polls by a narrow margin.
