Kerala Cong cries foul over police raid on hotel rooms of women leaders, moves ECI 

Palakkad, Nov 7 (IANS) Ahead of Palakkad Assembly bye-election, Kerala Leader of Opposition, V.D. Satheesan of the Congress on Thursday said the midnight swoop by police in Palakkad to seize allegedly unaccounted cash from hotel rooms of women Congress leaders was a blatant example of political vendetta. 

The Congress leader also claimed that he had filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India over the failed attempt to implicate Congress leaders.

“What we all witnessed the other day was an action by the police under the pretext of enforcing Election Commission guidelines but not a single official, who ought to be present when the police undertakes such a raid, was there,” said Satheesan, referring to the incidents that took place in the wee hours of Tuesday.

“Neither the concerned Revenue Divisional Officer or the Additional District Magistrate was present when the police entered the rooms of our women leaders at 12.05 am. The concerned officials told Shafi Parambil, our Congress MP, that they had no clue on what was happening. This clearly shows the Pinarayi Vijayan government tried to intervene to cause havoc but failed miserably,” added Satheesan.

The swoop that began close to midnight came to a close around 3 am. Hotel rooms were searched by the police after reports surfaced that large amounts of money had arrived at the hotel rooms where the Congress leaders were staying.

Satheesan claimed rooms of Congress leader Bindhu Krishnan and her colleague and former legislator Shanimol Usman were searched, while a large number party Congress, CPI-M and the BJP workers were present.

A video in which CPI-M Rajya Sabha member A.A. Rahim and Thiruvananthapuram district BJP president V.V. Rajesh could be seen engaging in a talk while the police action in Palakkad was taking place has gone viral, giving the Congress the ammunition to allege a conspiracy between the CPI-M and the BJP.

The Congress leader alleged the raid was carried out under instructions from the CPI-M top brass who had joined hands with the BJP to divert public attention from the 2021 Kodakara hawala case, allegedly involving leaders of the saffron party who received illegal money for election expenditure.

Satheesan claimed after he filed a complaint with the Election Commission over the police raid, the poll body had sought a report from the district collector.

Reacting to the turn of events, CPI-M state secretary M.V. Govindan said things were now clear that huge sums of money had come.

The Congress party was caught on the back foot and there has to be a detailed probe on what happened, said Govindan.

State BJP president K. Surendran said the police failed to do their duty and hence things reached a situation like this.

The by-election in the Palakkad Assembly constituency will take place on November 20

The seat fell vacant as sitting Congress legislator Shafi Parambil resigned after being elected to the Lok Sabha.