In a sensational twist to the Kerala gold scam case, the Kerala Police registered a case against the central probe agency Enforcement Directorate for allegedly pressuring Swapna Suresh, the prime accused, to give a fake statement against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Kochi: Crime Branch has registered a case against ED officials on the basis of the revelations in the leaked audiotape of Kerala gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh. Crime Branch submitted the FIR in the Ernakulam First Class Judicial Magistrate Court (ANI)
— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) March 19, 2021
According to the reports, the Kerala Crime Branch has now registered a case against the Enforcement Directorate on the offences of conspiracy. The complaint has been registered after Swapna Suresh had alleged that ED officials forced her to give a false statement against Chief Minister Vijayan.
The crime branch has submitted the FIR in the Ernakulam First Class Judicial Magistrate Court. A video clip, allegedly that of Suresh was circulated some months back stating that she was forced to implicate Kerala CM by ED officials.
The case was registered against the ED with the permission of the Director-General of Prosecutions. The case has been registered under various sections including conspiracy and forgery.
Mathrubumi has reported that two female police officials, namely Siji Vijayan of Palarivattom police station and S Rejimol of Kadavanthra police station had given statements that ED had pressurised Swapna to give false statements against the CM. The Crime Branch case has been based on their statements.
Earlier, the Kerala crime branch had recorded the statements of 18 persons including Swapna Suresh as part of the probe. Following this, the state home department had obtained legal advice on registering a complaint against ED officials.
The Kerala government has decided to form a special team to probe the case after Swapna Suresh had alleged that the ED officials were forcing her to implicate Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the gold scam. Recently it was reported that Swapna Suresh, the kingpin in the Kerala gold smuggling case, had revealed to the Customs Department that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was very much involved in the gold and dollar smuggling cases.
Swapna Suresh names CM Pinarayi Vijayan and three other ministers in Gold Scam
Ahead of the crucial assembly elections in Kerala, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government was pushed into a spot of bother as one of the main accused in the high-profile gold smuggling case had named Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
In a sensational disclosure, Swapna Suresh reportedly had detailed Kerala CM Vijayan’s close connections with the previous UAE Consul General and alleged that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was very much involved in the gold and dollar smuggling cases.
During her interrogation, Swapna Suresh has stated that three other cabinet ministers, along with Kerala Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, were also involved in a gold smuggling case, the Customs Department submitted before the Kerala High Court.
In addition to this, Swapna Suresh had also revealed to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had held multiple meetings with the Consul General of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2017.
Kerala Gold Scam
In July last year, the Customs officials in Kerala had nabbed a former employee of the UAE Consulate in Kerala named Sarith where he had divulged that Swapna Suresh, also a former staffer, had forged documents to misuse diplomatic privileges, to smuggle gold from UAE illegally.
On July 5, Suresh’s baggage, marked with the UAE Consulate address, was held at the airport. Swapna Suresh worked as the marketing liaison officer of Space Park under the Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) that comes directly under the IT department. Swapna Suresh was soon arrested for obtaining fake documents to claim diplomatic privileges and smuggling gold from UAE.
The call details of the main accused, Swapna Suresh, had revealed that the accused was in regular touch with Kerala’s Higher Education minister KT Jaleel.
