E-Paper
Customs to question Kerala Speaker for alleged role in dollar smuggling case
Initially, he will be sent a questionnaire and later he will be summoned based on his replies.
The Customs department will question Kerala legislative assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan next week in connection with his alleged role in dollar smuggling and his investment in some educational institutions in a West Asian country, a senior customs official said.
Initially, he will be sent a questionnaire and later he will be summoned based on his replies. He said Customs had earlier sought legal opinion on this and got the go-ahead and the investigation was at a crucial stage. In January first week, his personal secretary K Ayyappan was questioned by the Customs for more than 10 hours.
The alleged dollar smuggling and other irregularities came to light when central agencies were probing the gold smuggling case through the United Arab Emirates consulate in the state capital in July last year.
But the Speaker said in Malappuram that he hadn’t got any information in this regard and he will be happy to share any information with any agency. He said he was least bothered as his hands were clean. Last week the Customs had also questioned two of his friends.
After the gold smuggling case surfaced, there were reports allegedly linking the main accused Swapna 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 where she had invited him. 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 certain West Asian countries.
They also alleged the accused smuggled US dollars to Gulf countries using Sreeramakrishnan’s green channel access. They also alleged that a major portion of the smuggled US dollars was commission obtained from various government projects including the Life Mission Project. The Speaker denied these allegations and said he was ready for any probe. There are reports that in her statement before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC she reportedly took his name and claimed that he had invested in an educational group in the UAE.
When the Customs busted the gold smuggling racket, Suresh was working as a consultant with the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited. Before this, she worked at the UAE consulate at the state capital in the public relations department. After the gold smuggling case surfaced, her degree was also found to be fake. The state police had registered a case against her for this.
