In September last year, four men allegedly flew to Qatar from Keralam, broke open the money chest at the IUML’s Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC) office and stole 31 lakh Qatari riyals — the equivalent of Rs 8 crore — before flying back home. For nearly a year, the robbery remained unresolved, even as questions began to emerge over the theft and its handling.

That was until Wednesday, when a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Kozhikode unexpectedly showed up at Koilandy police station in Kozhikode rural district and made a startling admission — that he had been part of the quartet that broke open the money chest and stole money that was sent to Keralam.

On Wednesday, Parappil Balakrishnan, a welder who had contested last year’s local body polls from a division in Koilandy municipality as a BJP candidate, walked into the police station to turn himself in.…