Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government has termed the ongoing investigations into the gold and dollar smuggling cases by a few central agencies as politically motivated. But the investigators are undeterred by the political opposition and have received the nod of the Union Finance Ministry to go the whole hog.
The Customs Board and the finance ministry had earlier withheld permission to question senior functionaries including the Speaker of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. With the latest go-ahead the cases will be pursued to the full extent.
The Customs investigating team is now preparing to interrogate powerful persons in the state government. Top officers in the department met for the purpose in Delhi and Kerala.
The Customs on Friday stated that Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the gold smuggling case, had made ‘shocking disclosures’ against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan and some ministers over the alleged 'smuggling' of foreign currency.
The Customs has informed the Kerala High Court that Swapna had made disclosures about the role of top politicians in high posts in the state government when she was questioned in custody late last year.
The Speaker has been already summoned to appear for questioning by Customs on March 12 in connection with the dollar smuggling case. The notice was issued after several attempts to get his statements in connection with the smuggling, including his travel abroad and other details, did not bear fruit, officials said.
The Customs has also served notice to Vinodini Balakrishnan, the wife of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, former secretary of the ruling CPM in Kerala, to appear at its Kochi office. She has been summoned to appear at the Kochi office of the Customs on March 10 over the possession of an iPhone gifted by Santosh Eapen, the MD of Unitac Builders, who was arrested earlier in connection with the case.
ED to follow suit
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), another central agency, is also preparing to defend itself against the Kerala government bid to corner it alleging mental torture of a few officials of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) during interrogation.
The ED team has denied the complaints of a KIIFB official in this regard. This employee had appeared on behalf of the the KIIFB chief executive officer and submitted an affidavit.
The investigating team has submitted a report saying no such interrogation took place. It plans to send another notice in case the KIIFB officials do not turn up for interrogation. The ED might even go to the court.
The central agency had registered a case and summoned the KIIFB staff for questioning in connection with the issue of Masala Bonds.
The state government has been alleging that the decision to register a case in connection with the issue of Rs 2,150 crore Masala Bonds in the London Stock Exchange is nothing but a political move ahead of the assembly polls.
As was reported earlier the LDF government's moves against the ED now and the CBI earlier are part of its strategy to make a counter-attack when cornered over a slew of embarrassing scandals like the smuggling of gold and dollars as well as the drug and rape cases involving a few people close to the CPM.
