'Kerala Gold smugglers frequented CM's office, have close links with him': BJP's Surendran

K Surendran, BJP Kerala state president, alleged that two officials in Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's office and two ministers of the government have close links with the prime accused in the gold smuggling. He was addressing the media on Thursday at the state office in Thiruvananthapuram. "These officials have contacted the prime accused directly and through phone calls, multiple times," he said. 

Gold smuggling prime accused Swapna Suresh, Sarith and Sandeep Nair have frequented the CMO office, he pointed out. He also advised Kerala Chief Minister to step down before this information comes out in the public domain. Emphasising that he is making these allegations with full responsibility, he said that the CM's ex-principal secretary Sivasankar was doing all the illegalities with the full support of the Chief Minister.

"The Chief Minister is the main beneficiary in the gold smuggling. His close aides have received the proceeds of the crime as the Chief Minister himself is the kingpin," he alleged.

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He pointed out that a large number of donations have poured in from abroad. In a bid to explain the role of the Chief Minister, he asked, "How is it that Swapna and Sivasankar reached UAE four days before the Chief Minister was to arrive?" He also alleged Swapna had played a key role for Chief Minister during his visit to the UAE. 

"The controversial calls which Sivasankar made to customs officials to not check the baggage," as alleged by Surendran, "was done by the tainted IAS office by saying the package was for the Chief Minister himself."

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'Sivasankar's pressured customs official'

In April 2019, Sivasankar made calls to customs officials saying to clear the baggage which came via diplomatic routes. The pressure put by Sivasankar led to the non-examination of the baggage by the customs.  Sivasankar had accepted this during his interrogation by ED on October 15 this month. Although he denied the same later, the ED has secured evidence that pins the officer. "The chats between Swapna and Sivasankar, which ED had intercepted from the hidden iPhone of Swapna, clearly showed the Swapna had pressured him to do so. Two months later, in July 2019, the prime accused sent dummy packets through diplomatic channels. "The baggage was cleared, without checking, as pressure was put by Sivasankar two months early," said an ED source.

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