STATE OF PLAY
An evolving high-level political scandal, with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the centre of it, has sparked off protests in Kerala.
Several in the government have been under the scanner since the gold smuggling case grabbed the headlines. A week ago, Swapna Suresh, an accused in the case who was earlier a consulate employee handling the affairs of the Kerala government, stirred up a political storm when she alleged that Mr. Vijayan had sought the UAE Consulate’s help to import “contraband metal and ship out tranches of foreign currency” via the diplomatic channel to avoid customs scrutiny. She also gave a sworn statement to a judicial magistrate stating the same. The government denied the accusation. Ms. Suresh then alleged that the government had dispatched plainclothes officers to raid her house in a reprisal for making charges against Mr. Vijayan. She released ‘audio evidence’ of an alleged troubleshooter for the government who, she claimed, had tried to arm-twist her into retracting her “damning statement” against Mr. Vijayan. She alleged that the intermediary had told her that Mr. Vijayan and CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had channelled their “ill-gotten” wealth into the U.S. account of a religious group. The group denied the charge and so did the CPI(M). Subsequently, the ‘intermediary’ said on television that he was not a police agent and had acted in Ms. Suresh’s best interests and that they were family friends.
