The alleged political and police “connections and financial shenanigans” of suspected fake antiquities dealer Monson Mavunkal have returned to weigh ominously on the ruling front and the Opposition.
The two-year-old case, pretty much erased from the public domain, burst onto cable news chyrons and across social media after the Crime Branch named Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran and two ranking police officers as suspects in the alleged fraud.
The rapid-fire series of events consumed Tuesday’s new cycle, prompting angry reactions from the Congress and silence from the ruling front. They impelled Mr. Sudhakaran to call a press conference to deny the “politically motivated” charge.
In a riveting split-screen moment, Monson told reporters in court that Mr. Sudhakaran had no role in the case. Instead, he trained the gun on the Chief Minister’s Office, stating the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s “PS” would soon find himself in the dock.
Monson revealed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was on the case and he had handed over incriminating evidence to the Central agency.
Monson had become a pariah from the parlours of power and wealth he inhabited before the police arrested him “for peddling fake antiquities and defrauding people of large sums of money by promising police and political patronage for their businesses”. Monson was photographed with high-profile personalities at his home, which served as an office and museum, during his heydays in the antique business. However, Monson fell from social grace after the police concluded that his antiquities business was an elaborate scam.
Among those seen in Monson’s company was Mr. Sudhakaran. Naming the KPCC president a “malefactor” seemed to have eclipsed dissensions within the Congress, at least transiently. Top leaders have overtly rallied behind him.
The Congress called the case politically motivated sabre rattling to intimidate the Opposition and divert public attention from the government’s shortcomings and illegalities ranging from gold smuggling to nepotism in awarding lucrative contracts.
All India Congress Committee general Secretary K.C. Venugopal said the Chief Minister borrowed from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tool kit: subverting law enforcement to target political opponents and muffle dissent.
The Left Democratic Front has not reacted to Monson’s accusation against the CMO. However, an LDF insider privately maintained that the government, for obvious reasons, was keen to avoid the public spectacle of being targeted by Central law enforcement as it occurred in Tamil Nadu. He said Monson and his accusers have reportedly moved the High Court for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Hence, the government was keen that the police present a watertight case to prevent such an embarrassing eventuality.
