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Kerala HC quashes 2 police cases on ED
The FIRs were filed against the ED in March on the basis of the reported claims of main accused in the smuggling case, Swapna Suresh, and her accomplice Sandeep Nair, that they were being pressured to take the name of CM and others
The Kerala high court on Friday quashed two cases filed in March by the state police against officials of the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly forcing the two main accused in the gold smuggling case to implicate chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and some of his Cabinet colleagues.
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The first information reports (FIRs) against ED were filed on the basis of the reported claims of the main accused in the smuggling case, Swapna Suresh, and her accomplice, Sandeep Nair, that they were being pressured to take certain, names including that of Vijayan.
The smuggling case surfaced last year after 30kg gold was seized from diplomatic baggage meant for Thiruvananthapuram’s UAE consulate. Later, Vijayan’s principal secretary, M Sivasankar, was among those arrested for helping the accused. Investigators alleged that Suresh was the mastermind.
ED moved the court saying the FIRs were filed with “ulterior motives to derail statutory investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act related to the smuggling of large quantities of the gold...”
The court quashed the FIRs, saying the police should have approached the special PMLA court. A single-judge bench of justice VG Arun also directed the crime branch to submit all information in the matter to the PMLA court in a sealed cover.
Congress leader Ramesh Chennitahala lauded the verdict. BJP leader and Union minister V Muraleedharan said Vijayan cannot get away by sacrificing some of his officials. “He cannot intimidate central agencies.” The ruling CPI (Marxist) said the government will take a decision after examining the verdict.
