AG sends notice to customs commissioner

KOCHI: Advocate General CP Sudhakara Prasad issued a notice to Commissioner of Customs (Preventive) Sumit Kumar as a respondent on a petition seeking sanction to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the officer for disclosing the details dollar smuggling accused Swapna Suresh’s confidential statement.

The petitioner,  CPM leader and former opposition leader in the Kochi Corporation K J Jacob, claimed the commissioner’s action interfered with the due course of the judicial proceedings and meant only to further political causes. This, he said, was an abuse of process of the court. Jacob cited the statement filed by the commissioner in the High Court in response to a petition filed by the government challenging certain remarks in the order of the additional chief judicial magistrate (economic offences) court while providing security to Swapna.

The statement revealed Swapna as saying that the foreign currency was smuggled out of the country at the instance of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan with the help of UAE Consulate.The petitioner claimed that this contravenes settled law that details of statements recorded under Section 164 of CrPC should not be passed on to anybody or made public. Further, a copy of the statements could only be used by the investigating officer.