A cheating case has been registered against BJP leader in Kerala and former Governor of Mizoram Kummanam Rajasekharan, along with eight others, at Pathanamthitta in Kerala.
A Pathanamthitta native complained to the police that the accused cheated many people by accepting lakhs of rupees by offering partnership in a paper and cotton-based banner manufacturing unit at Palakkad district in Kerala.
The complainant, C R Harikrishnan, hailing from Aranmula, also alleged that he invested around Rs. 30 lakhs, but was not issued any share certificate.
Rajasekharan was arraigned as fifth-accused in the case registered by the Aranmula police. His close confident and personal staff Praveen was the first accused in the case. Various sections of IPC for breach of trust and cheating were invoked. The complainant said that cheating took place while Rajasekharan was serving as Mizoram Governor and the venture was inaugurated in November 2018.
Meanwhile, Rajasekharan reacted that it is a politically motivated case. The case has been registered without conducting any sorts of preliminary verification and hence a political ploy is strongly suspected. He said that he just tried to promote the venture, but was unaware of the financial deals involved in it.
BJP Kerala leaders have strongly backed Rajasekharan. BJP state president K Surendran said that Rajasekharan has a very clean political track record and the fresh allegations and case is part of a conspiracy of the ruling Left-Front in Kerala to tarnish BJP's image. He also said that the party would legally and politically face the case.
Incidentally, the case against Rajasekharan came close on the heels of the Centre nominating him as its representative in the administrative committee of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. Earlier, BJP NRI cell convenor Harikumaran Nair was nominated as Centre's representative in the committee. But he was replaced by Rajasekharan soon.