Twists and turns of characters with apparently opaque motives seem to shape the high-profile police investigation into the alleged political conspiracy to denigrate Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family by ‘casting them under a cloud of suspicion’ in the 2020 UAE diplomatic baggage gold smuggling case.
On Thursday, a one-time woman speculator facing trial for large-scale financial fraud purportedly said under oath to a magistrate that she had evidence of a power cabal conspiring to defame the government. Later, she publicly alleged that the ‘clique of conspirators’ included a politician, journalist, and gold smuggling case accused.
Her statement appeared to echo the views of former Minister K.T. Jaleel, MLA, who had declared to the Cantonment police in early June that a toxic mix of political and business interests had spawned the plot to scandalise the political executive. Subsequently, the police formed a special team to probe the complaint. Dr. Jaleel had named Swapna Suresh, an accused in the gold smuggling case, and Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) leader P. C. George, ex-MLA, as respondents.
