The Customs department questioned Kerala legislative assembly speaker P Sreeramakrishnan for nearly five hours at his official residence on Saturday in connection with the dollar smuggling case. Later, his private flat in the state capital was also searched.
“They sought explanation on certain matters with regard to the Dollar scam and spent less than two hours and were satisfied,” the Speaker’s office told news agency PTI.
The central board’s action comes following the Speaker’s failure to appear before the probe team in Kochi despite multiple summons.
The dollar smuggling case pertains to the alleged smuggling of ₹1.30 crore by a former head of the finance department of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consulate at the state capital to Muscat in Oman.
The speaker was questioned on the basis of statements given by 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.