BJP channelled unaccounted money into Kerala during poll campaign: Pinarayi

Opposition seeks truthful probe into movement of BJP’s election funds

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan says black money endangered the sanctity of the electoral process and derailed statutory and truthful accounting of election expenditure.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday told the Kerala Legislative Assembly that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had channelled unaccounted money into the State during the 2021 Assembly election campaign.

The Chief Minister was replying to an adjournment motion moved by Congress legislator Shafi Parambil. Mr. Parambil had demanded that the House discuss the case to ensure a truthful police investigation into the alleged movement and subsequent highway robbery of “BJP’s unaccounted election funds” at Kodakara in Thrissur on April 3, merely three days prior to the Assembly polls on April 6.

Mr. Vijayan said the BJP had laid down a smokescreen of lies against the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF)government to cloak its illegal influence-creation operation fuelled by unaccounted money. The Congress had amplified the BJP’s false messaging, parroting the lies spread by “unprofessional” Central investigators, Mr. Vijayan said, without specifying the UAE gold smuggling controversy that dogged the previous LDF government at the fag end of its term.

Threat to democracy

The Chief Minister said black money posed a severe threat to democracy. It endangered the sanctity of the electoral process and derailed statutory and truthful accounting of election expenditure. “The Kodakara case was a grave crime against the polity in that sense,” he said.

The State police have arrested 20 persons and recovered ₹1.12 crore out of the estimated ₹3.5 crore stolen during the highway robbery. They have also seized 347 gram of gold bought using the loot and recorded the statement of 96 witnesses.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had sought the details of the case. The State police complied on June 1.

Call for caution

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan cautioned the ruling front against using the Kodakara case to strike a detente with the BJP. He said the Central investigation into the gold case centred on the previous LDF government had sputtered and stopped after the hawala heist “involving” BJP leaders had surfaced, Mr. Satheesan said.

The Speaker denied the Opposition’s motion after he found the Chief Minister’s reply satisfactory.