Gold smuggling case: ED collects property details of Minister KT Jaleel

Thiruvananthapuram: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has obtained documents related to the property- assets of higher education minister K T Jaleel as part of the ongoing investigations into the gold smuggling case.

The documents have been acquired to check the authenticity of the statements given by the minister earlier. A total of 140 documents have been submitted by the minister before ED which include details of the bank accounts of Jaleel, his wife and two children, the minister's Director Identification Number (DIN) and details of his foreign trips. The DIN number was taken by ED as Jaleel while holding the local bodies’ portfolio was also chairman of Clean Kerala Company.

In a letter submitted along with property documents, Jaleel has stated that barring 19.5 cents of land in Valanchery there was no other property in his name or in his wife or children's name. The documents of house were handed over to the Assembly five years ago for availing a loan of Rs 5 lakh.

The letter stated that his wife has been working as a teacher since 1992 and currently she is principal of higher secondary school. The savings from her salary till date is Rs 22 lakh and his savings as college lecturer, MLA and minister comes to Rs 4.5 lakh.

He said barring the salary, no other amount has come to the bank account. Wife and children do not possess gold ornaments, he does not own a vehicle. Apart from shares of Rs 5,000 each in two cooperative banks, there is no other investment.

The minister has stated that the bank account of his daughter who is doing her MBBS on a merit seat in Andaman, has Rs 36,000 while his son who is doing LLB from Pune has just Rs 500 in his account.

As a minister, during the past four and half years, Jaleel made six foreign trips. He informed that official trips were made to Russia, Maldives, went to UAE twice and the US for taking part in public functions and visited Qatar for a personal requirement.