The probe committee, headed by its state vice president Mohan Shanker and with another vice president Manjeri Narayanan and former state DGP G.P.C. Nair as members, had been originally deputed to probe the strife-torn party’s debacle in a 2005 Lok Sabha bypoll. But its senior leaders who deposed before it highlighted how the party made money from the scam, down to details such as even the official bribe rates for party workers and others to get petrol pumps allotted.

State BJP president today issued a press statement that said the scam’s expose was based on forged documents, and that the probe report had made no mention of any petrol pump scam.

This was after the same BJP leader was quoted saying yesterday: “This is an internal issue of our party, and even our state committee has yet to view and discuss the probe report. Besides, the report has only passing references (about the petrol pump scam). Where is the evidence to substantiate those? I don’t want to comment any more.’’

Senior BJP leader and former state president K. Raman Pillai, who had told the committee that the party made Rs 18 crore and detailed the bribe rates, had an altogether different version, though he did not say the probe report that this newspaper quoted was forged: “The probe report quoted was the draft version. The final version will be made later,’’ he said.

This was what the same leader had told the party probe committee: “About Rs 18 crore had been collected....(but) accounts of only two crore have been furnished. The balance amount they are keeping and using to help followers for acting against the party. These collections were carried out by P.P. Mukundan (RSS nominee and BJP organising secretary for Kerala and Tamil Nadu) and Prof Narayanan Nair (BJP state treasurer) — Prof Nair demanded Rs 20 lakh from party workers and Rs 25 lakh from others for getting sanction for petrol pumps. This can be seen in the minutes book....’’

However, this is what G.P.C. Nair, former state DGP and current head of the state BJP’s human rights cell and a member of the probe committee, told The Indian Express : “Every word in the report is true. We took depositions from 81 leaders, and faithfully recorded what they deposed. Yes, I agree the pump scam is a serious issue. But we did not probe that because the committee’s terms of reference given by our party was limited to looking at the reasons for the poll debacle’’.

When The Indian Express contacted the state BJP’s president pointing out what the party’s own probe committee member had said, he responded: “I have nothing to say.’’