Thrissur, Jul 23 (UNI) The Special Investigating team investigating the Kodakara black money heist case, which has put the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the dock, filed the charge-sheet in a local court on Friday.
The 625 page charge sheet filed before the Irijalakuda magistrate court has made state BJP President K Surendran and his son Harikrishnan as witnesses among 219 others. The charge sheet has named 22 people as accused. The SIT has questioned 19 BJP leaders, including K. Surendran, for hours in the case and all of them are now in the witness list.
All the BJP leaders, questioned by the SIT, unanimously agreed that they knew Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker Dharmarajan, who brought the money. They told the police that Dharmarajan had the responsibility to distribute campaign material of the party.
The charge sheet links the BJP with the source of the money. But it can be investigated only by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The investigation was mainly to find whether the money was meant for the BJP’s election campaign.
After filing the charge sheet, the SIT will hand over its detailed report to the ED. The police also recommend handing over the case to the ED.
An amount of ₹3.5 crore and a car were stolen by a gang at Kodakara on April 3 just three days before the state assembly election. Though the driver of the car lodged a complaint about theft of Rs 25 lakh, the police found that the actual amount involved was Rs 3.5 crore. The police recovered a part of the money and the car and arrested 22 people. The police have mentioned that it is difficult to recover the entire stolen money.
Dharmarajan, who filed a case demanding the recovered money and the car, had told the court that the money was for business purposes .But the investigation has indicated that the money was to use for party election purpose.
UNI PMD JAL 1821