Thiruvananthapuram: The Crime Branch which arrested K Sudhakaran, the president of the Kerala unit of the Congress, claims it has robust evidence against him in a cheating case involving fake antique dealer Monson Mavunkal. However, the agency will find it hard to dispel the notion that it was unfair to the Congress leader, especially when a few others, including a former state police chief, who were associated with him were let off the hook.
As is well-documented Monson's residence had been frequented by several IPS and IAS officers, including the then Director General of Police Loknath Behera and the present Vigilance director Additional Director General of Police Manoj Abraham.
Monson snapped photos with these officials to add legitimacy to his counterfeit artefacts, and one of them featuring Behra seated on a phony throne at Monson’s residence spread quickly on social media.
But the Crime Branch insists that the Sudhakaran presence at Monson's house lent credibility to the audacious scam committed by con artist. However, it is blamed for double standards as the complainants themselves were well aware of the links that Monson had with the top bureaucracy.
Sudhakaran's complicity?
As per the petition Monson had made the complainants believe that the Central government had frozen Rs 2.62 lakh crore that he had purportedly earned by selling unique antiques to a royal family in the Gulf. Monson had taken a total of Rs 10 crore over a period of time from the complainants under the guise of spending it for removing the hurdles in getting the amount. The complainants also charged that on November 22, 2018, Sudhakaran had promised them at Monson’s house that he would intervene to resolve the issues in his capacity as a Member of the Parliament.
Fate of top cops
Earlier, following the visit of top cops to Monson’s house, the police even enforced patrolling to ensure the safety of his fake artefacts collection. Despite all this, Behera has never come under the scope of the ongoing investigation at any point. Upon retiring from the service, the government even rewarded him by offering an appointment as the head of the Kochi Metro.
Manoj Abraham, who had accompanied Behra to Monson’s residence, cast suspicion over the authenticity of these antiques and called for an investigation, but the move did not yield any results. It took the department about seven months to complete the investigation and during this period, Monson continued to make himself present even in the official events organized by the Kerala Police.
Suspect motive?
Though a picture of Monson with Sudhakaran had emerged in the public domain immediately after the conman’s arrest, the Crime Branch failed to receive any credible evidence to arraign the KPCC president as an accused despite investigations led by two separate Crime Branch heads and that too for nearly a couple of years.
This reinforces the suspicion that Sudhakaran is being arraigned in the case and arrested in view of the prevailing political situation in which the Opposition raised back-to-back allegations against the Chief Minister and the LDF government in connection with the implementation of various mega projects.
Interestingly, IG G Lakshmana and the former DIG S Surendran, who had been very close to Monson for a long, were arraigned as accused only after Sudhakaran’s inclusion in the case.
