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Kerala gold smuggling case: ED officials booked over deposition of main accused against CM
With assembly elections just three weeks away, the latest move has opened another front on the ongoing centre-state battle.
In an unusual move, the Kerala police on Friday filed a case against officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly forcing Swapna Suresh, the main accused in the sensational gold smuggling case, to give a statement against chief minister Pinrayi Vijayan.
With assembly elections just three weeks away, the latest move has opened another front on the ongoing centre-state battle but the opposition Congress said it was a move aimed at diverting attention from burning issues. The ruling CPI(M) said the move is to implicate the CM and create a big poll issue.
Earlier, the crime branch sought legal opinion on this and got the nod to book ED officials. In the First Information Report (FIR), the crime branch said it has clinching evidence against ED officials and later a leaked voice clip of the accused also confirmed this.
Earlier, some women police officials, who escorted Suresh, also gave a statement saying they were witness to officials forcing her to take the name of the CM.
The FIR said ED officials had questioned Suresh on August 13-14 last year and allegedly forced her to give a statement to implicate the CM in the case. The case has been registered under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 192 (fabricating false evidence), 195-A (threatening any person to give false evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.
But a senior ED official, who did not want to be named, said the latest move was aimed at intimidating officials and the agency will seek legal remedies to address it.
Earlier, a video clip, purported to be of Swapna Suresh’s, was leaked out from the jail in which she alleged that she was under tremendous pressure to take the name of many ministers and the CM. She is presently lodged in the women jail in Thiruvananthapuram. Later, two women officers who escorted her also claimed that they were the witness to ED officials forcing her to name important personalities including the CM. The ED, however, denied these claims.
The Congress and the BJP said the latest move was aimed at diverting attention and weaken the case. “The ruling CPI(M) is cornered from all sides in smuggling case and Sabarimala issue. The case was a diversionary tactic,” said state Congress chief Mullappally Ramachandran. “The nervous CM is intimidating officials of the central agencies. It will not work,” said state BJP chief K Surendran. But CPI(M) state acting secretary A Vijayaraghavan said the state won’t allow a free run of the central agencies to discredit the government amid poll. “We will tell people about the nefarious designs of central agencies,” he said.
The gold smuggling case surfaced in July last year after 30 kilograms of gold was seized from a consignment camouflaged as a diplomatic bag in the UAE consulate in the state capital. Later, many, including CM’s principal secretary M Sivasankar and a senior IAS officer, were arrested for helping the accused. After three months in judicial custody, he was granted bail later. The three main accused, including Suresh, were detained under Cofeposa (conservation of foreign exchange and prevention of smuggling activities act).
Last month, the customs department had filed a shocking affidavit in Kerala High Court quoting Swapna Suresh’s statement under Section 164 of the IPC wherein she alleged that the CM, three of his ministers and the Speaker were aware of smuggling activities through the consulate. Later, the AG had sent a show-cause notice to the customs commissioner to explain why contempt proceedings were not initiated against him.
