Kerala BJP chief K Surendran has been summoned by police for questioning in the the highway heist case in Kodakara in the district in which allegations of "hawala" connections were raised against the party's state leadership.

Police on Friday served notice to Surendran asking him to appear before its team in Thrissur on Tuesday, July 6.

Sources said the police served notice at his residence in Kozhikode district. Surendran was not at his residence when the police turned up.

The BJP alleged that the ruling CPI(M), using its power, was targeting the party and its president.

"The BJP will not allow Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the ruling Left to hunt down Surendran", the party said in a Facebook post.

The BJP in Kerala, facing charges of using "hawala" money in the April 6 Assembly polls, has accused the CPI(M)-led LDF government in the state of playing the "politics of revenge" against it in connection with the highway heist.

The saffron party has alleged that instead of checking the call lists of the accused in the heist case, the police were going through the call list of the complainant in the case.

Instead of nabbing the robbers and recovering the money, the police are looking at how the case can be linked to the BJP, as the person who lost the money had helped the party in its election campaign, it has alleged.

According to a complaint filed by Shamjeer Samsudheen on April 7, a gang had stopped his car on the Kodakara flyover here and looted Rs 25 lakh kept in the vehicle when he was on his way to Kochi from Kozhikode.

?Though the complaint had said only Rs 25 lakh were stolen, the investigators later found that the actual amount could be about Rs 3.5 crore and it was a 'hawala' transaction.

?Police have arrested 21 people in connection with the case.

(PTI inputs)