A case was registered on Monday against Kerala BJP president K. Surendran for allegedly bribing a rival candidate in Manjeshwar constituency during the recent Assembly polls, hours after a magistrate’s court in Kasaragod sanctioned filing of the FIR.

V.V. Rameshan of the CPM, who had finished third from Manjeshwar, had filed an application seeking the court’s sanction since the charge was non-cognisable.

Rameshan’s lawyer C. Shukkur told The Telegraph that the Badiyadka police station in Kasaragod had registered an FIR under IPC section 171b (bribery related to election) late on Monday evening.

“We received the sanction this afternoon, based on our application filed earlier in the day,” Shukkur said.

Bahujan Samaj Party nominee K. Sundara has alleged the BJP got him to withdraw from the race by giving him

Rs 2.5 lakh and a smart phone and promising him a wine shop. He said Surendran had spoken to him over the phone. Surendran eventually lost narrowly to Congress ally IUML.

The maximum punishment for election bribery is a year’s jail.