Palakkad hotel raid triggers protests as police search for alleged black money, finding nothing, sparking political drama.

The high-profile midnight police raid on a hotel in Palakkad early Wednesday, ostensibly to confiscate concealed wads of illicit cash for electioneering, roiled Kerala politics in the run-up to the critical bypolls in the Chelakkara and Palakkad Assembly constituencies and the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat.