The six accused in the Manjeswaram election bribery case, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kerala president K. Surendran, failed to appear at the Kasaragod District and Sessions Court on September 21.
They failed to appear despite stringent instruction by Kasaragod sessions judge K.K. Balakrishnan who had in the previous hearing directed all the accused to be present on the day.
Meanwhile, Mr. Surendran and the other accused have filed a petition seeking to discharge them in the case. They petitioned that they are innocent and the case was fabricated by the police for political motives. The sessions court will hear the detailed arguments on October 4 after accepting the petition.
The case is that K. Sundara, who was a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate in the Manjeswaram constituency in the 2021 Assembly elections, was bribed and later threatened to withdraw his nomination paper. The accused had been alleged of giving a bribe of ₹2.5 lakh and a mobile phone to him. The court has directed Mr. Sundara too to appear in the case.
The case registered by the Badiadka police was later investigated by a special team led by District Crime Branch DySP A. Satish Kumar and the chargesheet was submitted to the court.
The complaint was given by V.V Ramesan, who was the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate from Manjeswaram in the Assembly election.
Mr. Surendran is the first accused in the case. Former BJP district president K. Balakrishna Shetty, Yuva Morcha former State treasurer Sunil Naik, other party leaders K. Manikanda Rai, Y. Suresh and Lokesh Noda are other accused.
