Wayanad: BJP state president K Surendran will be subjected to a voice-matching test or voice spectrography to verify the authenticity of the audio clip release by Praseeta Azheekode in the Bathery Election Bribery case.
Voices of both Surendran and Janadhipathya Rashtriya Party (JRP) leader Praseetha need to be examined, a court here ruled while considering the case.
The voice samples need to be submitted at the Chitranjali Studio at Kakkanad, Kochi, on October 11.
The court ruling was based on the request submitted by the Crime Branch unit at Wayanad.
The case
The police had registered a case against Surendran for allegedly bribing JRP leader CK Janu to persuade her to contest the Assembly election from the Mananthavady seat. JRP leader Praseetha had deposed before the Wayanad Police that the BJP president gifted Rs 10 lakh to Janu to facilitate her return to the BJP-led National Democratic Allaince and contest the elections, following which a magistrate court in Wayanad directed the police to register a case against Surendran.
Praseetha released a few audio clips recently which she claimed are records of conversations she had with Surendran on handing over Rs 10 lakh to Janu.
Later, she released another audio tape which revealed a conversation with the BJP leader on an additional transaction of Rs 25 lakh to Janu.
A case against Surendran for bribing Sundara, a BSP candidate in the Manjeswaram assembly constituency in Kasaragod district, is also under investigation after a district magistrate court permitted the police to go ahead with a petition filed by a CPI(M) leader on the alleged election malpractice. A second notice has been served to Surendran in the case asking him to appear before the Kasaragod Crime Branch police officials with a mobile phone, which he claims has been lost.
