Kerala police chargesheet in highway robbery case: BJP sourced Rs 40 cr illegally for polls says cops

Before the Assembly polls this April, the BJP had illegally sourced Rs 40 crore from Karnataka and allegedly distributed it among various office-bearers of the party’s Kerala unit through hawala route, and Rs 3.50 crore highway robbery in Thrissur district three days before the polls was part of that black money, according to the chargesheet in the highway robbery case submitted in a Thrissur court on Friday.

Another tranche of funds to the tune of Rs 4.40 crore was looted in Tamil Nadu’s Salem while allegedly being taken from Karnataka to Kerala, the chargesheet has stated.

The BJP has earlier distanced itself from the case and said police cannot link it to the party.

Loktantrik Yuva Janata Dal national president Saleem Madavoor, who has earlier petitioned the Enforcement Directorate and sought probe into the Kerala highway robbery case, on Saturday petitioned Tamil Nadu DGP about the Salem loot. He also said that Tamil Nadu police have so far not received any complaint about the stolen money, which indicates the looted amount of Rs 4.40 crore was black money.

According to the chargesheet filed by Crime Branch, the money robbed in Salem was being taken from Bengaluru to Kerala on March 6 — exactly a month before Kerala voted. Rs 3.50 crore was robbed in Thrissur on April 3.

It said the money robbed in Salem was to be brought to Kerala by Dhanarajan, said to be close to Kozhikde-based RSS worker A K Dharmarajan, a hawala dealer who was incidentally accompanying the money looted in Thrissur.

Dhanarajan is listed as a witness in the Kerala case.

Of Rs 40 crore “illegally sourced’’ in Karnataka, Rs 17 crore was directly brought to Kerala by Dharmarajan, Dhanarajan and others, the chargesheet stated. Another Rs 23 crore was brought through hawala agents in Kozhikode, it stated.

The chargesheet accuses BJP state president K Surendran and party state secretary (organisation) M Ganeshan) of having knowledge of the movement of cash, and says the former has close links with Dharmarajan. Early April 3 morning, the day the heist took place in Thrissur, Dharmarajan was allegedly in touch with Surendran’s son K S Harikrishan, who is also listed as a witness, the police have stated.

According to the chargesheet, of Rs 3.50 crore robbed in Thrissur, only Rs 1.46 crore has been recovered so far — either as currency or gold — and that a large part of the money has been spent by the 22 accused arrested.

Meanwhile, Loktantrik Yuva Janata Dal’s Madavoor said the car from which cash was looted in Salem bears a Kerala registration and was left there. The car is now kept at the premises of Konkanapuram police station.

Madavoor said Konkanapuram police had rushed several notices to the owner of the abandoned car but no one has turned up so far.