'We will catch up with your cases', says Sudhakaran to CM Vijayan

Kochi, June 13 After the Crime Branch wing of the Kerala Police registered a case against state Congress president K. Sudhakaran, on Tuesday he slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for trying to implicate him in a non-existent case and warned him that "time is not far when Vijayan himself will get trapped in a few cases".

"I have no direct or indirect relation with the complainant in the case. It was three days back I was served the notice to appear before the probe team on Wednesday. I have decided I will not appear, instead I will give a letter seeking time for me to appear before them," said Sudhakaran.

"Vijayan you are living in a fool's paradise and all know that you will end up in jail. You are now going forward using your power and covering up all the grave allegations that have come up against you. We will surely catch up with your cases and in the not too distant future all the allegations presently against you will definitely come out," said Sudhakaran.

In the past few days trouble seems to be mounting on Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan with the probe agencies tightening their noose around the two in separate cases.

Satheesan is under the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau scanner for allegedly collecting money from abroad to build homes for the poor in his constituency affected by the 2018 floods.

Though the case had been cleared by the Kerala High Court, its sudden resurgence is being attributed to the Congress leader's open criticism of Chief Minister Vijayan after a handful of cases surfaced against him.

On Monday, the Crime Branch police registered a case against Sudhakaran in an alleged cheating case.

The complaint against Sudhakaran was that a person called Anoop had paid Rs 25 lakh to the now-jailed fake antique dealer, Monson Mavunkal at his Kochi office in 2018. When the money was being handed over, Sudhakaran was also present and Rs 10 lakh was taken by him after promising to get a favour done for him.

The Crime Branch has named Sudhakaran as the second accused and asked him to appear before the probe team on Wednesday.

"I was the state Forest Minister and I could have easily made crores of rupees and now Vijayan says that I took Rs 10 lakhs. This is an absolute baseless allegation and I have never ever met the complainant at all. So, Vijayan please do not scare us with these cases," added Sudhakaran.

Reacting to the turn of events, Satheesan said everyone knows what has been going on in CM Vijayan's office and what they have been doing.

"Starting from gold smuggling to the bribery case in the Life Mission and the rampant corruption that has come out in the K-FON and AI camera cases, where the in-law family members of his son are involved. To cover up all these blatant violations, he is trying to run us down by registering false cases against us, but we will not be cowed down and we will handle it legally and politically," said Satheesan.