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The Kerala High Court has issued notice to K. Surendran, former State president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and five others on an appeal filed by the government challenging an order of the sessions court, Kasaragod, that acquitted them in a bribery case pertaining to the 2021 Assembly poll.
The prosecution case was that Mr. Surendran and others bribed Bahujan Samaj Party candidate K. Sundara by offering him ₹2.5 lakh and a smartphone for withdrawing his candidacy in the Manjeswaram Assembly constituency. Mr. Surendran had contested unsuccessfully from the constituency.
The government submitted in its petition that the order discharging him and the others from the case was illegal and there was sufficient evidence to put the accused on trial for the offences they had been charged with.
The sessions court had in October 2024 acquitted them in the case. The government filed the appeal after withdrawing a review petition that it had filed in this regard. The matter was posted for hearing on October 30.
The High Court had in November 2024 called for the trial court records in the case, when the government filed the appeal.
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