Kerala Chief Minster Pinarayi Vijayan.
Credit: PTI Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: A former officer secretary of the BJP in Kerala revealed that hawala money was pumped into the state during the 2021 Assembly election, putting both the BJP and the CPI (M) on the defensive.
In a damage control bid, CPI (M) on Friday sought state and central agencies to reinvestigate the matter.
BJP president K Surendran's direct involvement was suspected in the Hawala money deal. Congress has been alleging that the Kerala police probe into the Hawala deal was sabotaged as part of a CPI (M)-BJP deal to settle various probes by central agencies against the Kerala government and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter.
Thiroor Satheesh, a former office secretary of BJP, has now come out with a revelation that six sacks were brought to the BJP office in 2021 by BJP supporter and businessman Dharmarajan and a hotel room was also booked from him. Later he found that the sacks contained cash.
Reiterating the CPI (M)-BJP nexus allegation, Congress leader and leader of the opposition V D Satheesan said that the police probe did not mention the sources and destination of the money to protect the BJP.
CPI (M) state secretary M V Govindan said that even as the state government had sent the police probe reports to the central agencies for probe into the sources of hawala money, the ED and IT departments did not initiate a probe. From the fresh revelations, it is suspected that Rs. 41 crore hawala money was pumped in by the BJP in Kerala in 2021. Hence further detailed investigation by state and central agencies was required.
Just ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls, the police received a complaint that Rs. 25 lakh was stolen from a car in a highway heist at Kodakara in Thrissur. But the police probe found that Rs. 3.5 crore was stolen and the money was being brought from Karnataka for BJP's election-related activities. BJP supporter and businessman Dharmarajan had allegedly brought the money. Some of the accused in the heist were found to be in touch with BJP state president Surendran. The police also filed a chargesheet by making BJP leaders witnesses.
Surendran reacted that the allegations were baseless. The central agencies could not take up the probe owing to lack of any evidence.