Kodakara hawala money brought in six sacks was party’s election fund, says BJP former office secretary

KOCHI: Tirur Satheesh, a witness in the case and former secretary of the BJP office, made a crucial revelation in the Kodakara hawala case. Satheesh revealed that BJP's election funds were brought in the form of hawala money amounting to crores. He said that a room was booked for those who delivered the hawala money as per the directive of the district treasurer.

‘The Kodakara hawala transaction is an incident that happened in real. The money reached the Thrissur district office the night before the incident took place. I had arranged accommodation for Dharmaraja and his companions who had brought the money as directed by the district office. The incident happened in Kodakara after they left in the morning. This is the money that the BJP needed and this is mentioned in the charge sheet of the police.

When Dharmarajan first came to the district committee office, the state and the district presidents were there. After talking to them, he left. It was only after Dharmarajan left, came to know that he was the one delivering the materials for the election. Tirur Satheesh disclosed that it was only after the six sacks were kept on top of the office, he knew about the money.

On the morning of April 3, 2021, a group of people stopped the car at Kodakara on the national highway and snatched the unaccounted money brought from Kozhikode to Kochi. The car owner filed a complaint of losing Rs 25 lakh, but during police investigation, it was found that Rs 3.5 crore was missing. Although it was alleged that this was black money given by the Karnataka unit of the BJP to be spent in the assembly elections, the party had denied this.

23 people were arrested in the case and the investigating officer in the case was later shifted. All the accused in the case were out on bail. BJP state president K Surendran's son was also questioned. The police explained that the investigation was conducted in the robbery case and that the BJP leaders had no role in it. The police had also said that the ED should investigate the black money case. The ED has not yet proceeded with the investigation in this case. Meanwhile, the BJP leader revealed the incident.