Kodakara hawala heist: Kerala police to demand probe by central agency

Thrissur: The Kerala police is set to demand an investigation by central investigation agency into the Kodakara hawala heist case which triggered a political controversy in the state.

The police's plan for a central agency probe is mainly aimed at investigating the source of money and BJP's link in the case.

The special investigation team will apprise the court of the entire information gathered in connection with links of BJP leaders. The police pointed out that the evidence collected by the investigating officials which clearly indicated that the money was brought into the state for BJP's election campaign, would also be submitted to the Enforcement Directorate and union home ministry in a report.

Though the case registered earlier pertained to the robbery of hawala money, the focus of the probe has been mainly on the source of money and the link of BJP leaders. Since the chargesheet concerns only robbery, there's no final decision yet on arraigning the BJP leaders as accused in the case. The chargesheet in the case is expected to be filed before July 26.

Earlier, the special investigation team had informed the court that Rs 3.5 crore was brought into the state for BJP's election campaign. As 90 days have passed since the arrest of the accused, the investigation officials' have to file the chargesheet even before the recovery of the entire amount.

Of the Rs 3.5 crore robbed, Rs 2.25 crore is yet to be traced. As many as 22 accused are in the jail in connection with the case. It may not be possible for the police to close the hawala money issue just on the basis of the chargesheet in robbery case. Any such move on their part would throw up questions as to why they summoned the top BJP leaders to trace the source of money and the manner in which the money was brought into the state.

Under these circumstances, the special investigation team's decision is to continue with the comprehensive probe into the source of money and document the involvement of leaders.

The police clarified that a preliminary report had already been submitted to the Enforcement Directorate.

Kodakara, gold smuggling cases settled: Satheeshan

Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan has alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi the other day to settle Kodakara hawala money and gold smuggling cases involving CPM leaders.

Speaking to reporters in Kasaragod on Friday, the Congress leader said this was the main reason why the BJP leaders have not been included in the list of accused yet. Taking a dig at the chief minister, Satheeshan remarked "Pinarayi could have taken BJP state president K Surendran along with him for the compromise meeting."

Satheesan alleged that four months have passed since the investigating agency obtained all evidence in the hawala money robbery case, but no action has been initiated against Surendran yet. He was speaking at the "meet the press" programme of the Kasargod Press Club.