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Gold smuggling case: Congress MLA releases images of PwC official with Vijayan’s daughter
Gold smuggling case main accused Swapna Suresh was employed by the PricewaterhouseCoopers at the IT Space Park as a consultant in 2020 at the alleged initiative of former principal secretary to the chief minister, M Sivasankar, also an accused in the case.
Congress legislator Mathew Kuzalnadan on Wednesday released images of Jaik Balakumar, one of the directors of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), with Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena, to buttress his allegations of the family’s involvement in the Kerala gold smuggling case.
Gold smuggling case main accused Swapna Suresh was employed by the PricewaterhouseCoopers at the IT Space Park as a consultant in 2020 at the alleged initiative of former principal secretary to the chief minister, M Sivasankar, also an accused in the case.
Replying to an adjournment motion in the state assembly on Tuesday, Vijayan denied the charges and slammed the Congress legislator, saying that he could not raise frivolous charges against people sitting at home due to political differences. After snubbing him, Vijayan said these charges were “blatant lies and sheer imagination of the MLA.”
However, during a press meet at the Kerala Congress headquarters here, Kuzalnadan released the screenshots of the Veena’s firm Exalogic’s website, in which Balakumar’s photos were displayed prominently. He also shared some photos of her with Balakumar. Kuzalnadan said the website was updated in June 2020, after the gold smuggling case surfaced.
After the gold smuggling controversy surfaced in 2020, the Exalogic website went down in May. However, when the website came back by the end of June, the reference to Balakumar had vanished, Kuzhalnadan said.
The description of the old website also allegedly carried details to show Balakumar was the mentor of the firm owned by Veena Vijayan. HT could not verify the authenticity of the images released by the legislator.
“I have nothing personal against the family of the CM. On the floor of the house, he challenged and snubbed me. So I found it is my duty to retrieve old details of the website, which clearly stated that Jaik Balakumar was closely associated with his daughter’s firm,” he said. He challenged the CM to file a defamation suit against him if these disclosures were incorrect.
On the retrieved page, Veena T (CM’s daughter) is shown as the founder of Exalogic and under consultants are three images – in the middle is the photo of Jaik Balakumar. “Jaik’s involvement at Exalogic is at a very personal level, where he mentors and guides the founders with his incredible knowledge of various aspects of the industry,” the text read.
“Why were his photo and details removed all of a sudden? If the CM feels that I have said non-sense as he mentioned in the assembly, I challenge him to take action against me and the firm (webarchiv.org) for disclosing this,” he said.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan also asked the CM to react to the latest disclosure. “Facts are surfacing one by one. We expect an explanation from him,” he said.
Veena’s husband Mohammad Riyas, also a minister in the Vijayan cabinet, dismissed the new allegations, saying that they were quite old.
“It is nothing new, old wine in the new bottle. This allegation was strong during the assembly elections also, but people gave us a resounding mandate. Congress leaders often ruminate old things quite to get noticed,” he said.
The assembly had witnessed a three-hour heated discussion on the gold smuggling case on Tuesday.
Though the opposition sought an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the latest disclosure of Swapna Suresh, the CM rejected it.
Stating 164 of the CrPC, she alleged that the CM and his family members were aware of smuggling and money laundering through the UAE consulate. Police, later slapped a conspiracy case against her and constituted a special investigation team.
