[Kodakara Hawala Heist] Kerala AAP President Moves High Court Seeking Action On Alleged Money Laundering By BJP For Election Purposes

The Division Bench comprising Justice Gopinath P and Justice Syam Kumar V M stated that the matter will be considered on May 14, 2024. “The State has filed their charge sheet, Income Tax Department saying regarding the source of funds they have to find out, ED is acting under the PMLA for the purpose of attaching proceeds of crime to the State, what more should be done, what more can be done”? enquired the Court orally today.

The Court orally remarked, "Our concern is only this. The Court shall not be made a venue for political slugfest. We will not permit it. You may have various reasons but we will not allow that," 

The respondents opposed the filing of the PIL during the election time and alleged that the Court was used as an arena for gaining publicity. It was also argued that PIL was not maintainable since the investigation was complete and the final report was also filed long back.

The Court thus granted time to the Standing Counsel to file an objection regarding the maintainability of the PIL.

The money laundering came before the public light when a robbery was committed on April 3, 2021, on the Kodakara Highway in Thrissur district by certain unknown persons who allegedly robbed 25 lakhs rupees and a car from the complainant in Crime No, 146/2021. It is alleged that Crime No., 146/2021 was registered at Kodakara Police Station and the investigation was conducted.

The plea alleged that during the robbery investigation, the police found out that 3.5 crores of unaccounted money was robbed which was brought through hawala channels from Karnataka to Kerala to use in the election campaign by the BJP. 

The plea stated that the final report was filed after the investigation which found hawala transactions to the tune of 3.5 crores.  During the investigation, top BJP leaders including State President K Surendran were questioned by the Kerala Police Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was reported by the media. 

The plea alleged that even after three years, no action has been taken based on the final report that sought a probe into the hawala chain. The plea states that unaccounted money should not be used for election purposes since it affects the sanctity of elections. The plea also states that investigation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is warranted since hawala is a financial transaction mode that affects the economic security of the country

The plea seeks a direction to the State Government and State Police Chief to investigate the Hawala dealings and seeks a direction to the State Government to report this to the Central Government for initiating an NIA investigation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The plea also alleged that no action has been taken by the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and National Investigation Agency into this incident. It is also alleged that nvestigation was not properly conducted by the police into the Hawala money chain involving powerful political persons. 

The petitioner has thus approached the Court seeking direction from the Court for taking action on the final report.

The plea has been moved by Advocates Manu Ramachandran, M.Kiranlal, T.S.Sarath, R.Rajesh, Sameer M Nair, Sailakshmi Menon, Jothisha K.A., Shifana M.

Case Title: Vinod Mathew Wilson v Union of India

Case Number: WPC 17179/2024