Bid to shield Pinarayi and sabotage smuggling & drug cases on: Chennithala

Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has alleged that a concerted bid to shield Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan from the ongoing probes linked to people once associated with his office is currently on. He also claimed the police and government are hand in glove to derail the investigations into a couple of cases that have shamed the Left Democratic Government and the CPM.

The opposition leader reiterated the charge that arrested bureaucrat M Sivasankar and co-accused Swapna Suresh were trying their best to save the CM. In this regard, he cited the leaked voice clip in which Swapna is blaming the investigating agencies for its bid to force her to incriminate the CM.

"The government and CPM were making every effort to sabotage the probe into the gold smuggling case and drug racket case. The attempt to sabotage the case was jointly made by both when they understood that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan might get caught in the case," Chennithala said.

The drug racket case pertains to Bineesh Kodiyeri, the son of CPM leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.

The chief minister turned against the central investigating agencies when it became clear that his role in the gold smuggling case would get exposed. His voice changed soon after the ED summoned his private secretary C M Raveendran for questioning, the Congress leader stated.

Chennithala also said the LDF’s anti-corruption agitation was aimed at hoodwinking the people of the state.

On Vigilance probe

Referring to the Vigilance probe being ordered against him, Chennithala said he was prepared to face any probe in the bar bribery case.

"The present probe has been ordered based on Biju Ramesh's old claims. The government need not think that it will be able to silence me by registering a case," he said, adding that "the case was not only politically motivated but had also been rejected twice earlier."

The opposition leader alleged that it was proved earlier that the voice said to be that of Biju Ramesh was fake.

The Vigilance investigation is based on liquor baron Biju Ramesh's disclosure that he had paid bribes to Chennithala and two other Congress leaders.

On Friday, Chief Minister gave nod for a Vigilance probe against Ramesh Chennithala, former ministers V S Sivakumar and K Babu.