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Kerala BJP chief, 5 others asked to appear before court in election bribery case
The court on Tuesday accepted the prosecution’s stand that all the accused must be present in court before considering the discharge plea
The Kasaragod district court on Tuesday directed Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kerala president K Surendran and five others to appear for hearing on October 25 in connection with the Manjeshwaram election bribery case.
Surendran and five other BJP leaders were booked by the crime branch on charges of threatening and bribing K Sundara, a BSP candidate in the Manjeshwaram assembly election in 2021, to persuade him to withdraw from the elections. Sundara had told the police that he was paid a bribe of ₹2.5 lakh and a smartphone by BJP leaders to withdraw from the contest, which he eventually did.
Sundara, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, had secured 467 votes as an Independent candidate in the 2016 assembly election in which Surendran had lost by just 89 votes. It is alleged that the BJP thereby saw Sundara’s candidacy as an obstacle in the 2021 polls and persuaded him to opt out.
Surendran and the other accused skipped four earlier hearings at the district court. The accused also filed a discharge petition stating that the charges against them will not stand the scrutiny of the law.
The court on Tuesday accepted the prosecution’s stand that all the accused must be present in court before considering the discharge plea.
“The prosecution had argued that the discharge plea should be considered only after all accused appear in the court. The court has ruled that all the accused must appear on October 25,” special public prosecutor Shukkoor told reporters.
