Kerala BJP leaders meet Governor, allege 'gross abuse of police machinery' by LDF government

Bharatiya Janata Party's Kerala unit on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan alleging "gross abuse of police machinery" by the state government to tarnish the image of the party and to harass its leaders out of political vendetta.

This comes close on the heels of the state police registering a case against the BJP state president K Surendran in an alleged bribery case in Kasaragod and the Special Investigation Team ( SIT) questioning BJP leaders in the Kodakara black money case in Thrissur.

The BJP alleged that the SIT was constituted with handpicked officials, including those "with tainted background" and those "known to have allegiance to CPI(M)".

"The LDF government appointed a special investigation team for conducting an investigation in Crime No 146 of 2021 of Kodakara Police Station under the supervision of an IPS officer. They had conducted the investigation effectively and rightly into the offences alleged in the FIR. The state Secretary in charge of CPI(M) was continuously raising politically motivated and unfounded allegations against the BJP and it appears that the government, therefore, decided to interfere with the investigation, misdirect it and use it as a weapon against the BJP. A new SIT was constituted with handpicked officials. The team consists of officers of tainted backgrounds and well known to have allegiance to CPI(M)," the memorandum said.

The BJP alleged that the SIT has been "constituted with clear political motives".

"The SIT, instead of conducting an investigation into the offences alleged in the FIR, has been interrogating and harassing numerous activists and leaders of BJP from various parts of the state and giving an impression to the media that they are investigating about the financial transactions associated with the robbery incident. The attempt is obviously to tarnish the image of BJP and to harass the leaders and activists," the memorandum said.

The BJP leaders including O Rajagopal, Kummanam Rajasekharan, P Sudheer, S Suresh and VV Rajesh met the Governor and submitted the memorandum.

The party alleged that the SIT is continuously giving motivated inputs to the media to give an impression that the money, allegedly robbed, was unaccounted funds of the BJP.

"The SIT has been specifically targeting the state president of the party and making efforts to tarnish him and his family too. The state party president has been spearheading the campaign against the ruling front and was instrumental in leading the party in all agitations against them," the BJP said.

Urging the Governor to take appropriate remedial measures, the BJP alleged that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is particularly targeting Surendran.

"The Chief Minister had on one occasion, while talking to the media, hinted that the state president will be facing retaliation. Now the Badiadka Police station of Kasaragod has registered a case for the offences, alleging that a person who had submitted the nomination to contest from the Manjeswaram constituency had made some statements against the BJP regarding withdrawal of his nomination," it read.

"The said person has been obviously induced to give some statements at the instance of police as he had revealed to media, before withdrawing his nomination that he had been acting out of his free will. This was ascertained by the Returning Officer also while accepting his withdrawal form. The police, after registering the case for bailable offences, are now making efforts to incorporate non-bailable offences and to arrest and detain the BJP state president," the memorandum added.

( With inputs from ANI )

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