BJP state chief Surendran discharged by Kerala court from Manjeshwaram poll bribery case

PTI, Oct 5, 2024, 7:06 PM IST

Representative image (credit: Shutterstock)

Kasaragod: A Kerala court on Saturday discharged BJP state president K Surendran and five others from the Manjeshwaram election bribery case.

Surendran and the others were discharged by Kasaragod Sessions Judge Sanu S Panicker.

The judge, allowing the discharge plea of the accused, said that the first accused — Surendran — was discharged of the offences under various provisions of the IPC and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (prevention of atrocities) Act 1989.

“Since the first accused is discharged of the alleged offences, I do not find any ground to proceed against the other accused also. Hence, they are also discharged of all the alleged offences,” the judge said.

The detailed order giving reasons is not yet available.

While the BJP state chief said that truth prevailed and that the case was fabricated to ruin his political prospects, the opposition Congress claimed that Surendran’s discharge proves the CPI(M)-BJP mutual arrangement not to harm each other.

Earlier in the day, the BJP state chief’s lawyer told reporters that the court said that prima facie the case would not stand.

The lawyer also said that the court accepted the defense argument that there was no need to go for trial in the case.

He further said that the defense was able to prove that the case was a fabricated one and that there was a political conspiracy behind it.

Surendran, while talking to the media outside the court after the verdict, recalled that he was saying right from the beginning: “truth will prevail”.

He added that it was a “well planned conspiracy to implicate him in the false case to destroy his political prospects”.

“Leaders of the CPI(M), Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) were behind the conspiracy,” he alleged.

He claimed that the aim behind the false case was to weaken the party and shake their confidence, but it was unsuccessful.

Later in the day, the Congress hit back with the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, V D Satheesan, alleging that if the complainant and accused work together, “what can the court do?” He alleged that the prosecution did not argue the case properly, leading to the discharge of Surendran and the other accused.

Satheesan said that the government helped the BJP and has been helping it for a long time since the Kodakara hawala money case in which Surendran was also allegedly involved.

“The accused in the case were left off completely in that case due to the mutual understanding between the CPI(M) and BJP. They do not act against each other. They help each other in such matters.

“Look at the ED probe in the Karuvannur cooperative bank multi-crore scam or the SFIO probe (into the CM’s daughter’s firm). Nothing is happening. All this proves our claim that there is an arrangement between them,” Satheesan contended.

The Crime Branch of the Kerala police filed a charge sheet against the BJP state president in January last year.

Surendran was accused of intimidating his rival candidate to withdraw from the contest for the Manjeshwaram constituency in the 2021 assembly polls.

He was charged under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which are non-bailable, and under sections 171 (B) and (E) (Bribery) of the Indian Penal Code.

The case was registered as per the directions of a Magistrate Court which considered a petition filed by V V Ramesan, the CPI(M) candidate, who fought the election against Surendran in Manjeswaram.

The case was later handed over to the Crime Branch.

BSP candidate Sundara had alleged that he was initially threatened and later given Rs 2.5 lakh as a bribe by the BJP to withdraw from the contest.

Sundara had claimed that Sunil Naik, a Yuva Morcha leader and a close aide of Surendran, had handed over the money and a smartphone to him. The BJP had denied the allegations.

Sundara, a Yakshagana artiste, had contested the election in 2016. He had filed his nomination once again in 2021, but had withdrawn.

Surendran, however, lost the election from Manjeswaram in the polls. IUML’s A K M Ashraf won the seat with 65,758 votes, while Surendran managed to bag 65,013 votes. CPI(M)’s Ramesan got 40,639 votes.