Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday said the allegations made by Swapna Suresh, an accused in the Kerala Gold smuggling case, against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan are "unprecedented and shocking". He said an anti-national activity has taken place in the CM office and demanded his resignation.
"The startling revelations by Swapan Suresh are unprecedented & shocking. Kerala CM has been accused & his officials are involved in a gold smuggling case. They can't deny this as a political conspiracy," Chennithala told news agency ANI.
"Anti-national activity has taken place in the CM office, we demand his resignation, inquiry must be done under a court. We can't trust central agencies, they have a nefarious design, BJP is in cahoots with CPM & wants to weaken the Congress," he added.
On Tuesday, Swapna said she has given a statement under Section 164 of the CrPC naming the Chief Minister, his wife Kamala Vijayan, daughter Veena Vijayan, former State Chief Secretary Nalini Netto, Additional Private Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister C.M. Raveendran and former Kerala Education Minister and current legislator K.T. Jaleel in connection with the case.
"I have been advised by the court to show restraint while I speak and hence I am not able to speak everything about the gold smuggling case. It all began in 2016 when Vijayan first went to the UAE. Then M. Sivasankar (former Kerala Principal Secretary to Vijayan and top IAS official) had asked me to make all arrangements for his visit in the UAE and I did it through our UAE Consulate in Kerala," she said.
"The next day, I get a call from Sivasankar saying that Vijayan has forgotten a bag and it should be immediately sent to him. At the Consulate office, there is a scanner and when we scanned the bag, it was filled with money," Swapna added.
She further said that on many occasions, a biriyani vessel was transported from the house of the UAE Consulate General in India to the residence of the Kerala Chief Minister.
"This has happened on several occasions and it has been found out that it contained metal-like objects. This was done under instructions from Sivasankar," Swapna added.
She said she made the same revelations to the various central probe agencies but this was being told to the media for the first time.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Chief Minister dismissed the allegations as baseless.
"The revelation made by an accused which has re-surfaced again due to vested interests has already been dismissed by the people here, earlier. This fresh attempt is a concerted one to destabilise a firm government which is relentlessly working for the good of the people. We are certain that the people who know everything will dismiss this as it did in the past," said Vijayan.
(With inputs from agencies)
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