A court in Thrissur granted permission for reinvestigation into the Kodakara hawala case with a direction to the probe team to submit the probe report within 90 days.
Earlier this month, the Kerala government issued an order for the reinvestigation into the 2021 Kodakara hawala case in the light of the revelations of Tirur Satheesh, former office secretary of the BJP in Thrissur related to the case. Following this, the special investigation team (SIT) approached the court, seeking permission to reinvestigate the case.
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Following the sanction from the Irinjalakuda Additional Sessions Court Judge Vinod Kumar N on Friday, the probe team can now go ahead with the investigation into the case.
Reinvestigation in the case can only be conducted with the court’s permission, since the Thrissur Rang DIG-led police team, formed to probe the case, already submitted the chargesheet to the court.
As per the chargesheet, BJP leaders, including its state president K Surendran, were witnesses in the case. In contrast, the revelation made by Tirur Satheesh, who was the office secretary of the BJP, indicates that such a hawala transaction has taken place in the office of the BJP. In the wake of this revelation, a special investigation team has been appointed by the state government for further investigation in the case.
Tirur Satheesh’s revelation that the money seized in the Kodakara money heist was hawala cash and meant for the BJP has kicked up a political storm in Kerala.
Tirur Satheesh, BJP’s former office secretary in Thrissur, alleged that he met Dharmarajan at the BJP district office earlier and booked hotel rooms for him and his associates to stay in Thrissur as directed by the BJP treasurer. They left the hotel on April 3 morning.
He claimed that Dharmarajan brought the hawala money to the BJP district office on April 2, while the robbery happened when the remaining funds were being transported to Alappuzha. The former office secretary of the BJP alleged that Dharmarajan brought the hawala money
to the BJP district office and the robbery happened when the rest of the money was being carried to Alappuzha.
The Kodakara money heist occurred on April 3, 2021, when a car carrying hawala money was intercepted by assailants in another vehicle on NH 544 in Kodakara, Thrissur district. They stole the money from the car. Initially, the police received a complaint about a robbery of
Rs 25 lakh, but further investigation revealed that Rs 3.5 crore in hawala funds had actually been taken. The money was being transported by a person named Dharmarajan, who was alleged to be an RSS worker
