Ker HC dismisses plea seeking Crime Branch probe into Kodakara hawala money heist case

PTI, Jul 13, 2021, 6:34 PM IST

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking a Crime Branch investigation into the Kodakara hawala money heist case, which is allegedly linked to state BJP unit and its leaders, and imposed a cost of Rs 10,000.

A bench headed by Chief JusticeS Manikumar said the petition was ”wasting the time of the court” and imposed Rs 10,000 cost on the petitioner Isacc Varghese, the state president of All Kerala Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Protection Council.

The court observed that the petition is an abuse of process of law and dismissed the case in limine.

A special team of Kerala police is investigating a complaint filed by Shamjeer Samsudheen that on April 7, a gang had stopped his car on the Kodakara flyover in Thrissur district and looted Rs 25 lakh kept in the vehicle when he was on his way to Kochi from Kozhikode.

The plea had said that the police investigation into the case found that the actual amount was more that Rs 25 lakh and an amount of Rs one crore and gold ornaments worth Rs five lakh were already recovered.

”As per the media reports, the investigation team has questioned BJP state organising secretary M Ganesh and other local leaders but there is no progress in the investigation with regard to the source of hawala money and the persons behind the transactions,” the plea said and sought for a Crime Branch investigation.

Though the complaint had said only Rs 25 lakh were stolen, the investigators later found that the actual amount could be about Rs 3.5 crore and it was a ‘hawala’ transaction.