Kochi, Feb 13 (IANS): Two-time opposition legislator Mani C. Kappan on Thursday got major relief when a court here exonerated him in a 15-year-old alleged cheating case.

Kappan, a multi-faceted personality before becoming a legislator, was a film producer and has also donned the grease paint in a few Malayalam films.

The exoneration order came from a special court in Ernakulam which tries criminal cases against MPs/MLAs.

The case against him was filed on the basis of a complaint filed by one Dinesh Menon alleging that Kappan had borrowed Rs 2 crore from him in 2010 but had only repaid Rs 25 lakh.

In 2013, Kappan and Menon entered into an agreement by which Kappan agreed to repay Rs 3.25 crore to Menon in instalments.

Kappan allegedly issued post-dated cheques towards the payment. He also used his property as collateral in favour of Menon.

However, the cheques were dishonoured and Menon learnt that the property had already been offered as security to a bank.

Menon filed a complaint and Kappan was consequently charged with offences which included criminal breach of trust and cheating.

But on Thursday, Kappan finally got cleared and incidentally, every time he contested an election, this case was used by his detractors.

Kappan has been a popular personality as he was pitted against towering Kerala Congress (M) veteran K.M. Mani who represented the Pala Assembly constituency in the Kottayam district from its inception in 1967 till he passed away in 2019.

In between two times, Kappan lost to Mani, but after the passing away of the latter, Kappan won a stellar victory as the NCP candidate in 2019. NCP was a full-fledged ally of the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Front.

But things went for a toss when the KC(M) led by Mani’s son, Jose K.Mani crossed over to the Left from the Congress-led UDF.

Kappan refused to give away his seat to Jose and in the process, he broke away from the NCP and joined ranks with the Congress-led UDF. In the 2021 Assembly polls, he trounced Jose.