Kerala legislative assembly speaker P Sreeramakrishnan was questioned by customs officials on Saturday at his official residence in connection with the dollar smuggling case. Later his private flat in the state capital was also searched.
Earlier the customs department had served several notices to him to appear before the agency but he failed citing many reasons. Customs officials later confirmed this and said the questioning went on for five hours. The dollar smuggling case pertains to the alleged smuggling of ₹1.30 crore by a former head of the finance department of the UAE Consulate at the state capital, to Muscat in Oman.
The Speaker was questioned on the basis of statements given by the two main accused in the gold smuggling case Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair. They reportedly told officials that the speaker was close to many officials of the Consulate.
After the gold smuggling case surfaced last July, there were reports allegedly linking the main accused Suresh with the Speaker. He later admitted that he knew Suresh as an employee of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Consulate and attended some functions on her invitation. But the opposition Congress and BJP alleged that it was more than an ‘official relationship’ and that Sreeramakrishnan had travelled with Suresh several times to West Asian countries and he had invested heavily in an educational group in one of the Middle-Eastern countries.
They also alleged the accused smuggled US dollars to the Gulf countries using Sreeramakrishnan’s green channel access. They said that a major portion of the smuggled US dollars was commission obtained from various projects in the state. But the Speaker had denied all these allegations.
{{/usCountry}}They also alleged the accused smuggled US dollars to the Gulf countries using Sreeramakrishnan’s green channel access. They said that a major portion of the smuggled US dollars was commission obtained from various projects in the state. But the Speaker had denied all these allegations.
{{/usCountry}}Sreeramakrishnan also refuted a report circulating on some social media sites that he attempted suicide. “I am not the one who takes respite in death. I am not a coward,” he said in a Facebook post saying some people were busy churning out malicious stories.