Kerala: Congress state chief Sudhakaran arrested, will be released on bail

Police arrested KPCC (Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee) President K Sudhakaran on Friday in a case related to fake antique dealer Monson Mavunkal. He is likely to be released on bail soon based on the High Court directive. 

The senior Congress leader had been quizzed for nearly seven hours by the crime branch ahead of the arrest. Earlier, the agency had submitted an additional report before the court here, arraigning Sudhakaran as an accused in the case.

The police had decided to interrogate the KPCC president on the basis of a statement by anonymous complainants who claimed to have given Monson money in Sudhakaran’s presence. However, Sudhakaran has denied the claims. Sudhakaran had said he had gone to Mavunkal's residence for treatment, as the latter claimed to be a trained cosmetologist.

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday, while asking Sudhakaran to appear before the Crime Branch on June 23, had ordered that if he would be arrested in the cheating case, he should be released on bail after furnishing a bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties of the like amount.

Mavunkal was arrested in September 2021 following a complaint from six persons that he had duped them to the tune of ₹10 crore. The accused produced bogus bank statements to make the complainants believe that he had huge wealth, the returns from the sale of diamonds and antique pieces abroad.

He claimed to have a collection of rare antiques, though the authenticity of all these ‘antiques’ are under question. Mavunkal had allegedly made false representations about himself and his business to various people and collected money from them.

Over the years, Mavunkal was legitimised by the several VIPs who have been seen with him, including former Kerala Director General of Police Loknath Behera, Assistant Director General of Police Manoj Abraham, actor Mohanlal, Inspector General of Police Lakshman Gugulloth and former Deputy Inspector General of Police S Surendran.

Mavunkal has describesd himself as a world peace promoter, philanthropist, educationist and motivational speaker on his website. Several VIPs, including Sudhakaran, have stated that they met Monson under the impression that he was a cosmetologist.