Kasaragod: BJP's Kerala unit president K Surendran has been slapped with non-bailable charges over the Manjeswaram bribery case which has link to his bid to contest the 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election.

Last year the Badiadka Police had registered a case (Crime Number 193/ 2021) against Surendran over bribery allegations. The case was filed under sections 171 (B) and (E) of the Indian Penal Code. He has also been booked now under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The charge was that Surendran, who unsuccessfully contested the election from the northernmost Manjeswaram constituency in the 2016 assembly poll, bribed Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate K Sundara to withdraw from the fray for the 2021 election.

Sundara, who eventually withdrew from the contest, had revealed that the BJP functionaries paid him Rs 2.5 lakh and gifted a Rs 15,000 mobile phone. He was also offered a wine parlour and residence in Karnataka if the BJP candidate won the constituency.

The offer was made as the BJP leadership thought Sundara, who had contested in the 2016 state polls, might garner party votes because of the similarity of his name with that of Surendran as had happened earlier. The fear was not unfounded as Sundara, an Yakshagana artiste, had bagged 467 votes in the 2016 election when Surendran lost to United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate PB Abdul Razk by just 89 votes.

Last time, Surendran was engaged in a tough contest with UDF candidate and eventual winner A K M Ashraf and Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate V V Ramesan. Surendran lost by 1,143 votes. He also lost from the Pathanamthitta constituency in south Kerala. Ashraf got 65,758 votes, while Surendran bagged 65,013 votes and Rameshan logged 40,639 votes.

Ramesan had approached the court with a plea to register bribery charges against Surendran. Ramesan's advocate C Shukkoor had then said the charges are serious as Surendran was involved in a conspiracy to scuttle democracy. "It was nothing but an effort to scuttle democracy," he said.

The BJP had dismissed all allegations and termed them as a conspiracy against it.