Pinarayi is biggest beneficiary in gold smuggling case, claims BJP's Surendran

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala BJP president K Surendran has accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as the biggest beneficiary in the gold smuggling case.

"Pinarayi and his office was behind all the hawala and reverse hawala trade that has now surfaced. He not only helped this to happen but also turned out to be the biggest beneficiary in this trade," said Surendran.

The case surfaced on July 5 with the arrest here of P R Sarith -- former UAE Consulate staff, and then came the arrest of another former embassy staffer Swapna Suresh, who afterwards worked in the IT Department's Space Park and also closely associated with Pinarayi's top aide.

For Pinarayi, things went from bad to worse when the Enforcement Directorate arrested his secretary and senior IAS official M.Sivasankar, who since October 29 has been in judicial custody.

Swapna Suresh has gone on record to state that Sivasankar was her mentor and managed to get her the IT space park job, when "she has not even passed Class 10 exam and that too at a mind boggling salary".

"Four state ministers and the Speaker of the Kerala Assembly (P.Sreeramakrishnan) all have direct contact with the accused," added Surendran.

According to reports, Swapna Suresh and Sarith have now given statements implicating a few big 'sharks' from various fields who have had some role in the case, which the various national agencies are probing.

Surendran is going hammer and tongs against Pinarayi at all his election rally for the three phased local body polls that begins on Tuesday and ends on December 14th.

"Pinarayi is not visible in the election rallies and moreover the Left candidates also wish for him not to make an appearance," said Surendran.

(With inputs from IANS)