The Kerala police on Saturday arrested IC Balakrishnan, the Congress MLA from Sulthan Bathery, in connection with the abetment of a suicide case involving the death of former Wayanad DCC Treasurer N M Vijayan and his son Jijesh. He was later released on bail after the District Sessions Court at Kalpetta in Wayanad granted him anticipatory bail.

The investigation team had been questioning IC Balakrishnan for the past three days. A joint investigation team of the police conducted a search at his residence in Kenichira. The search was led by Bathery Dy SP KK Abdul Sherif. It is reported that no documents related to the suicide abetment case were found during the search.

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The Sultan Bathery police booked Congress leaders IC Balakrishnan, ND Appachan, K K Gopinathan, and the late PV Balachandran, former DCC treasurer, on charges of abetment of suicide in the case of former Wayanad DCC Treasurer N M Vijayan and his son Jijesh on January 9.

Recently, Vijayan’s family handed over the letters written by Vijayan to the KPCC leadership and the suicide notes to the police.

The letters and suicide notes allegedly written by NM Vijayan before he died by suicide has put the Congress leadership in Kerala in a difficult situation.

The letters, which have been released by the family, purportedly mentioned the names of Sulthan Bathery Congress MLA IC Balakrishnan, DCC president ND Appachan and other local leaders of Congress and accused them of corruption. Vijayan alleged that the MLA took bribes for offering jobs at the Congress-controlled cooperative bank in his constituency. Vijayan also alleged he had a huge debt due to the financial transactions with the Congress leaders.

Vijayan and his son Jijesh (38), a former employee of the Sulthan Bathery Urban Cooperative Bank, were found in critical condition at their residence on December 24. They were shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, where they later succumbed to their injuries.

In his suicide note, Vijayan addressed his elder son, Vijesh, stating that he wanted the note to be handed over to the Congress leaders and then to the Wayanad district police chief after 10 days if the party failed to take action. Based on this letter, the Wayanad police have now registered an FIR against top Congress leaders.