Thiruvananthapuram: After the Enforcement Directorate and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Customs department will also question minister K T Jaleel in connection with the gold smuggling case and distribution of religious texts that arrived at the UAE consulate.
The Customs has registered a case against him for distributing religious texts, mainly Quran. The department has pointed out that distributing goods that were imported through the diplomatic channel was a violation of existing laws.
The department has formed a special team to investigate the case.
Some reports pointed out that, in addition to religious texts, 17,000 kg of dates were brought to Kerala through the diplomatic channel and distributed to various schools.
Jaleel has not responded to media about the Customs case. However, he wrote a Facebook post on Thursday in the morning, reiterating his innocence. The post was written in the backdrop of his questioning by the National Investigation Agency on Thursday.
"Investigating agencies could not unearth evidence in a non-existent case," he wrote, implying that the allegations against him were baseless. "I haven't done anything wrong, not even a minor error. That is why I could move forward without worrying about the allegations," he wrote.
LDF meeting
The Left Front will convene a meeting on Friday even as Minister Jaleel is put on the defensive in the case.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had a telephonic conversation with leaders of the Front’s parties.
Meanwhile, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has accused the Opposition of using the Quran issue as a political weapon to discredit the government.
In an article in the party mouthpiece Deshabhimani, Kodiyeri wondered if it was a criminal offence if KT Jaleel, as the minister of the Waqf Board, supported the customs of the UAE Consulate during the Ramzan period.
The Muslim League is feeding fuel to the anti-Quran agitation of the RSS, he said. The anti-Quran UDF-BJP agitation against K T Jaleel and the LDF government will end like a lost ghost, he said.
Kodiyeri said that what is happening in the state now is a joke in the name of protests and that it is a “mad” campaign of the opposition and the media to change the minds of the people.
