'Will decide when to appear before Police', says BJP state president K Surendran in Highway heist case

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after the Kerala Police reached state BJP President K. Surendran's residence and served a notice on him to appear before the team probing the case of the alleged hawala money that reached the state ahead of the April 6 Assembly polls, he said on Saturday that he will decide on the date to appear before the Kerala Police.

"Am asked to appear before the police on Tuesday to examine me as a witness. I will decide whether I should go on Wednesday or Monday or Tuesday. In case I don't appear they can again give me a notice and then go ahead with a warrant and still If I don't appear, they can arrest me and that's what you (media) want. Look, I have so many cases registered against me, so personally, I don't care for this, but the party views this as a serious one and will politically and legally tackle this," said Surendran while speaking to the media at Kozhikode.

"The CPI-M cadres are presently caught in the midst of numerous gold smuggling cases and it has now reached the state party headquarters in the state capital and to divert attention they will be up to all sorts of tricks and hence I am not the least worried about this notice," added Surendran.

The Kerala BJP unit was caught on the wrong foot when a person filed a complaint with the Thrissur rural police that an amount of Rs 25 lakh which he was carrying in his vehicle to pay as advance money for a land transaction was stolen from him on the Thrissur-Kodakara highway in April.

Ever since this row broke out, the national leadership is peeved especially when reports surfaced that tribal leader C.K. Janu's party JRP received Rs 10 lakh from Surendran, for returning to the BJP-led NDA.

However, the revelation by JRP Treasurer Praseeda Azhikode was quickly denied by Surendran and Janu, who threatened to take legal action against her.

The CPI-M's acting Secretary and convenor of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), A. Vijayaraghavan, alleged that this money was "Hawala" money being used by the BJP to fund its electioneering and the money was meant for party candidates.

Vijayaraghavan also alleged that an amount of Rs 3.5 crore was allegedly swindled and that senior state leaders of the BJP were behind the deal.

The Kerala Police has registered a case and various lower and middle level leaders of the BJP have been questioned and let off by now. Surendran's driver and an aide have also been questioned by the police.