More BJP leaders are under the police lens as the crime branch is set to take over the investigation into the case related to the Kerala unit president allegedly bribing a rival candidate to pull out of the recent Assembly elections.

Police in Kasaragod had on Monday registered an FIR against state BJP chief K. Surendran under IPC Sections 171b (bribery related to election) and 171e (punishment for bribery) following a complaint by CPM candidate V.V. Rameshan who finished third from Manjeshwar constituency.

The complaint was based on the disclosures of Bahujan Samaj Party candidate K. Sundara who had on Saturday said that the BJP gave him Rs 2.5 lakh and a mobile phone and promised a wine shop for withdrawing from the race.

Surendran eventually lost narrowly to Congress ally IUML’s candidate from Manjeshwar.

Sundara had said he was threatened by local leaders Suresh Naik, Ashok Shetty and former Yuva Morcha leader Sunil Naik for contesting against Surendran before they handed over the money.

The complainant’s lawyer, C. Shukkur, said that the actual investigation has only begun with the court sanction. “The police will now record the statements of Sundara and Surendran and usually add more penal sections as the investigation progresses,” he told The Telegraph on Tuesday.

Leaders of rival BJP groups in Kerala have closed ranks to portray a united party and rally behind Surendran without giving the impression they are a divided house.

While Surendran has been accused of paying Rs 10 lakh to tribal leader C.K. Janu on March 5 to return to the NDA with her party, Janadhipathya Rashtriya Party, against Rs 10 crore she had demanded, a heist in Thrissur district on April 3 from a car in which RSS worker Dharmarajan and his friend Shamjeer carried the money had come under cloud for alleged money laundering.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had told the Assembly on Monday that Rs 3.5 crore was in the car, although Shamjeer and Dharmarajan claimed the amount was Rs 25 lakh.