Election bribery case against BJP state chief K Surendran dropped by Kerala court
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Thiruvananthapuram: The discharge applications that BJP state president K Surendran and other local party leaders filed in a bribery case connected to the 2021 Assembly elections were granted on Saturday, bringing comfort to Surendran.
In the previous year, Surendran and five other individuals were charged by the Kasaragod police for allegedly paying a rival candidate to withdraw his nomination from the Manjeshwar constituency, where Surendran had run unsuccessfully in that election.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader K Sundara was allegedly offered a smartphone and Rs 2.5 lakh by the BJP in exchange for him withdrawing his Manjeshwar nomination, Indian Express reported.
Sundara, who received less than 500 votes in the 2016 election, stated that he had asked the BJP for Rs 10 lakh in order to be removed from the race. It is said that he was promised a new house in Karnataka and a wine parlour.
After CPM leader V V Rameshan brought a plea to the Kasaragod judicial magistrate court, requesting a directive to the police to record the First Information Report, the police had followed through. Rameshan had also run in the election, coming in third to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate A K M Ashraf's constituency.
Following the polls, Surendran and other local leaders were charged under Sections 171 (B) and 171 (E) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deal with bribery and encouraging someone to exercise an electoral right or compensating someone for doing so, respectively.
Surendran and others had filed discharge petitions challenging the case, claiming it was fabricated. Sundara gave a statement to the police during which he said the local BJP officials abducted him and made him withdraw his nomination.
Following his withdrawal as a BSP candidate, Sundara became a member of the BJP. A few days prior to the Assembly elections, Sundara declared his intention to withdraw from the poll race.