LOTUS AND LOOTERS

After the crushing assembly poll loss, a hawala scandal and multiple bribery charges threaten the credibility of the Kerala BJP

- CITHARA PAUL

On March 25, a few days before the assembly elections in Kerala, state BJP president K. Surendran said his party would be making headlines once the results were out. His predictions have come true and how!

After hogging the headlines for losing the lone seat it had in the assembly, despite a high decibel campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP is once again in the news, and for all the wrong reasons. The party is facing a hawala scandal and its senior leaders are being interrogated by the police.

It all started with a highway heist in the wee hours of April 3, three days before the elections. Nine men intercepted a car—which was on its way from Thrissur to Ernakulam—at Kodakara, by staging a fake accident. They looted the money being carried in the car. The car belonged to Kozhikode resident Shamjeer Shamsuddin; the driver was Abdul Rasheed, also from Kozhikode.

Four days later, Shamjeer filed a police complaint stating that ₹25 lakh, belonging to his employer A.K. Dharmarajan, a real estate businessman, was looted from the car. Shamjeer told the police that the money was being taken to Kochi for a real estate deal.