Kodakara highway heist case to come up before Special Court on March 26

The Kodakara highway heist cases booked in connection with a pre-dawn robbery that took place three days before the 2021 Assembly polls will come up before trial courts this week.

While a Special Court in Kochi trying offences booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act will consider one case on March 26 (Thursday), a criminal case booked by the State police for robbery and related offences will come up before the Additional Sessions Court, Irinjalakuda on March 28.

The two cases had attracted widespread public attention after it was alleged that the cash, which was brought in from Karnataka to be distributed among the BJP candidates who contested the 2021 Assembly elections, robbed from a car on the Kodakara highway, in Thrissur district, on April 3, 2021.

The robbery came to light when Shamjeer, a Kozhikode native and driver of the car in which the money was reportedly transported, approached the police with a complaint that an amount of ₹25 lakh was robbed by about 10 persons, who came in three cars at about 4.50 a.m. on April 3, 2021, near Kodakara in NH 544. The State government had also constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the case, which had generated much political interest.

However, the police had concluded in the final report filed before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Irinjalakuda on July 23, 2021 that ₹3.50 crore was involved in the highway heist and not ₹25 lakh as stated by Mr. Shamjeer. The police had also stated that it had seized around ₹1.46 Crore in the form of cash and gold from some of the accused. There was no trace of the remaining ₹2 crore, which was allegedly brought in, the police had reported.

Though the police had stated in the chargesheet that the money was brought in with the knowledge of the BJP State leaders, the party leaders duly denied it.

The police have arraigned 22 people as the accused and listed 12 BJP leaders, including former State president K. Surendran, former party organising secretary M. Ganesh, Thrissur district president K.K. Aneesh Kumar and nine others, as the witnesses in the case.

In its final complaint filed before the Special Court, Kochi, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) gave a clean chit to BJP leaders. While the police listed 12 BJP leaders as witnesses in the case, the ED’s list of witnesses included Dharmaraj, Sunil Nayik, Shijin and Dhnanaraj among others. The agency had also named 23 persons as the accused in the case. It had also been mentioned in the final complaint that ₹3.56 crore, which was given by one Dharmaraj for the purchase of a hotel in Alappuzha, was looted at Kodakara. The ED has also informed the court that Dharmaraj had revealed the source of money that was reportedly brought in the car and that the agency had recovered ₹3 lakh and provisionally attached immovable properties worth ₹8 lakh in the case.

The investigation of the Income Tax department into the case is still under way, according to the officials of the department.