Thiruvananthapuram: The Bharatiya Janata Party had more reason for embarrassment as Kerala police took into custody another person in connection with the case of printing currency notes from a house in Thrissur district.
In November 2016, the federal government led by the BJP had demonetised the existing Rs1,000 (Dh57) and Rs500 notes, in an effort to weed out black money.
Last week, police arrested Erachery Rakesh, a leader of the BJP’s Youth Wing, Yuva Morcha after unearthing various articles that were allegedly used to print bogus currency notes.
Police had found a printer, scanner, colour photocopy machine, paper for printing, ink and other materials while conducting a search at Rakesh’s home.
The raid at his home had been undertaken as part of a drive to clamp down on those who were known to be lending money at high interest rates. It was during the raid that police stumbled on the note-printing accessories.
On Sunday, police swooped down on Rakesh’s brother Erachery Rajeev at the house of one of his friends at Mannuthy near Thrissur, and took him into custody. Rajeev is a leader of the OBC Morcha.
Rakesh and Rajeev are the first and second accused in the case. The Mathilakam police recovered several thousand worth of currency notes and several land deeds from Rakesh’s residence. He is alleged to have been a money lender, taking land deeds of clients as security for the loans.
Ironically for the BJP, the 31-year-old Rakesh’s face was among those portrayed on a BJP campaign poster in January this year when the party held a march against what it called a march against ‘black money fronts’.
Rakesh is the Yuva Morcha area president of SN Puram, and Rajeev the OBC Morcha general secretary of Kaipamangalam.
Police suspect that the brothers may be part of a bigger racket, and the authorities are likely to involve the crime branch in the investigation.
