On June 23, when 17 political parties, including the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), were struggling at Patna to bury the hatchet and forge Opposition unity against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the general elections of 2024, Kerala’s Left Democratic Front government’s police arrested the state Congress chief, K. Sudhakaran, on a high-profile cheating case. Kerala’s Congress Party promptly called the CPI(M) an unworthy ally and the AICC general-secretary, Jairam Ramesh, rebuked the Kerala chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, as “Mundu Modi” (Modi in dhoti). The BJP leader, Shehzad Poonawalla, lost no time in citing the arrest to lampoon Opposition unity.
The 75-year-old president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee was arrested after being arraigned as the second accused in the case. It has upended the Opposition United Democratic Front’s proposed mass agitation against the two-year-old Left government, which is reeling under a slew of graft and felony charges. Making things worse for the UDF, Sudhakaran’s arrest came a week after the first accused in the cheating case, Monson Mavunkal, was sentenced to life imprisonment in another case for raping a minor girl. Sudhakaran has been on interim anticipatory bail that was granted by the Kerala High Court on June 21. Mavunkal, on bail in his cheating cases, has been in judicial custody in the rape case since 2021. The CPI(M) state secretary, M.V. Govindan, has also stated that Sudhakaran was in Mavunkal’s house when the latter allegedly raped the 17-year-old girl. Sudhakaran dismissed all the charges as being politically orchestrated but offered to step down from the KPCC presidentship which the Congress declined.
Kochi-based Monson Mavunkal, a self-styled antique dealer and cosmetologist, was arrested in 2021 for allegedly swindling Rs 24 crores from multiple persons during 2018-2020. His arrest followed a complaint filed by six businessmen in 2018, accusing him of non-repayment of Rs 10 crores they had lent him. According to one complainant, Anoop V. Ahmed, he gave Rs 25 lakh to Mavunkal at the latter’s house in Kochi in 2018 in Sudhakaran’s presence. Three former employees of Mavunkal also informed the police that they had witnessed their boss handing Sudhakaran Rs 10 lakh of the Rs 25 lakh he received from Ahmed. The complainants claimed they had submitted digital evidence to the police to support their allegations. Although Sudhakaran dismissed any link with Mavunkal’s criminal deeds, he admitted to having met him five times for cosmetological treatment. G. Lakshmana, an inspector-general of police, and S. Surendran, a retired deputy-police superintendent, are also accused in the case.
According to the complainants, they lent Mavunkal Rs 10 crores when he requested help to release his funds blocked under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. Mavunkal told them that around Rs 2.62 lakh crore was blocked which he claimed to have received from a royal family in the Middle East. The complainants alleged that Sudhakaran had assured them that he would help Mavunkal to get the money released using his political clout. The other complainants are Yakub Purayil, Siddique Purayil, Salim Edathil, M.T. Shameer, and Shanimon. Even after getting arraigned in the case, Sudhakaran maintained that Mavunkal was his friend even though he was not involved in his business deals. Ahmed also informed the police that Sudhakaran had called him on the phone and threatened to kill him if he did not withdraw his charge. On June 12, the crime branch arraigned Sudhakaran as the second accused and issued him notice to be present for interrogation. On June 21, the Kerala High Court granted Sudhakaran anticipatory bail.
Would anyone with even minimum common sense believe someone who claims to possess two of the 30 silver coins that Judas received for betraying Jesus, Prophet Muhammad’s chalice, the staff of Moses, the throne of Tipu Sultan, and much more? Many not just believed Mavunkal but purchased some of these ‘rare antiques’, paying big money or even lending him crores of rupees. Among those who posed with Mavunkal or his ‘prized collection’ of pictures that he flaunted to buttress his credibility included Sudhakaran, some ministers in the LDF government, top police officers, a former chief secretary and so on. Pictures of Loknath Behera, the former state director general of police, sitting on ‘Tipu’s throne’ and Manoj Abraham, an additional DGP, standing next to him holding ‘Tipu’s sword’ at Mavunkal’s museum had been published on social media. The museum was granted police protection as well.
Sudhakaran has maintained that there is no accusation against him in the original complaint or the first information report and that he was made an accused 19 months after the case was registered. The prosecution informed the court that although Sudhakaran’s name was not mentioned in the FIR, he was referred to in the original complaint. Sudhakaran said he would sue the CPI(M) leader, Govindan, for accusing him of being present when the minor was raped.
Until his arrest, Mavunkal led a high-profile life as a celebrity in Kochi. His sprawling mansion, guarded by armed bodyguards, housed the museum where he showcased his ‘priceless antiques’ and hosted VIPs. Even as the police investigation in the cheating case against Mavunkal was going on, a special Pocso court sentenced him to life imprisonment on June 17 for raping a minor girl. The case followed a complaint filed by the girl’s mother who was Mavunkal’s employee. According to the prosecution, Mavunkal offered to teach cosmetology to the girl and subjected her to repeated sexual assault. The prosecution informed the court that when the 17-year-old girl became pregnant, Mavunkal forced her to undergo an abortion. The additional sessions and district judge, K. Soman, observed that the accused deserved no leniency and slapped him with life imprisonment as well as a fine of Rs 52,500 to be paid to the complainant.
The UDF has announced a state-wide agitation against the LDF government’s ‘witch hunt’. It says that the CPI(M) has alwaysbeen particularly hostile to Sudhakaran who hails from the Marxist citadel of Kannur and has matched the party in all its political and violent tactics. Sudhakaran was an accused in cases related to attacks on Marxist leaders. The UDF also accused the government of imitating the BJP government at the Centre by harassing and foisting cases on Opposition leaders and suppressing media freedom. Sudhakaran’s case followed inquiries initiated by the state vigilance department against the former KPCC chief, Ramesh Chennithala, and the Opposition leader, V.D. Satheesan, in corruption cases. The LDF government faces widespread flak for initiating police cases against media persons who reported felonious cases involving its leaders belonging to the Students’ Federation of India.
Even though the annual monsoon is inordinately delayed, the muckraking season seems to be in full force in God’s Own Country and the dreams of Opposition unity against BJP lie truncated.
M.G. Radhakrishnan, a senior journalist based in Thiruvananthapuram, has worked with various print and electronic media organisations
