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Kerala Gold smuggling case: Cops fire water cannons on Cong workers staging protest | Watch video
The protests comes after gold smuggling case key accused Swapna Suresh's revelations about the chief minister. Suresh claimed that Pinarayi Vijayan was ‘aware of everything’ and told the court about the alleged role of his family members, senior bureaucrats and some former ministers.
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The Youth Congress workers on Thursday staged a protest demanding the resignation of Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the gold smuggling case in Thiruvananthapuram.
The police baton charged, fired water cannons on the protesters to disperse them as the party workers climbed on the barricades during the protest. Mahila Congress workers cooked and distributed biriyani. Suresh alleged that biriyani pots were taken to the CM'S office from UAE consulate on several occasions. She said she facilitated delivery of these heavy pots.
The protests comes amid political storm in the state after gold smuggling case key accused Swapna Suresh's revelations about the chief minister. Suresh claimed that Pinarayi Vijayan was ‘aware of everything’ and told the court about the alleged role of his family members, senior bureaucrats including M Sivasankar, Nalini Netto, former minister KT Jaleel, CM's private secretary CM Raveendran.
“It all began in 2016 when the CM was on a trip to the UAE. I was the secretary in the consulate and his principal secretary M Sivasankar contacted me for the first time saying the CM had forgotten to take one of the bags and it had to be taken to Dubai immediately. We sent the bag through a diplomat but before it we scanned and found the bag was filled with currency. That is how all it started,” Suresh had claimed, adding there was threat to her life.
Rejecting Suresh's charges, the chief minister said, "Unsubstantiated allegations have been made through the media from some quarters for narrow political reasons" and this was "part of some political agenda". "Such an agenda was rejected by the people earlier. After a break, the old things are repeated by the accused in the case. There is not even a shred of fact in it".
