Kerala High Court stays order to close election corruption case against state BJP president

The accusation against Surendran is that when he was contesting the elections from Manjeswaram as a BJP candidate, he forced K Sundara to withdraw from the elections.

Surendran and the other accused allegedly threatened Sundara and later bribed him with ₹2.5 lakh and a mobile phone worth ₹8,300 in March 2021.

Sundara later withdrew his candidacy. Voting for the election was held in April 2021 and Surendran narrowly lost to Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate AKM Ashraf.

A first information report (FIR) was later registered against Surendran and others based on a private complaint filed in a trial court by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate who had contested in elections in the same constituency.

Surendran is alleged to have committed offenses punishable under sections 171(E) (corruption), 171(B) (electoral bribery), 342 (wrongful detention), 506(i) (criminal intimidation) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of the identity of the accused). Indian Penal Code (IPC).

He was also charged under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, as Sundara belongs to a Scheduled Caste community.

Surendran then filed an acquittal petition before the Kasargode court.

He claimed the allegations against him were false and politically motivated. He also maintains that knowledge of the electoral offenses was only taken after the expiration of the statute of limitations.