Thiruvananthapuram: Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the gold smuggling through diplomatic channel case, continued her tirade against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, accusing him of running benami businesses in the Gulf, often under the "cover of development projects of the state".

"Pinarayi Vijayan has benami businesses in the UAE, Sharjah, and Ajman, which explains his frequent visits to the Gulf," Swapna claimed.

"All the ‘K-projects’ started in the state are actually ‘V-projects’. At the planning stage itself, they would latch on to the big fish interested in such projects and accept money in advance. These people later realize that the same are only paper projects but won’t dare to oppose him. Many such projects have been conceived under the leadership of Sivasankar (the former principal secretary) in the IT department. I, too, was a party to the round-table discussion held at the Cliff House. Parleys were also held in Dubai. Veena (Pinarayi’s daughter) didn’t attend any of the meetings that I participated in," Swapna alleged in a channel interview.

She claimed that Sivasankar had even considered posting her in Bengaluru to assist Veena’s company, ‘Exalogic Solutions’, but she rejected the same since her children were studying in Thiruvananthapuram.

"When consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers objected to the direct appointment of me and another person for the KFON project, they formed ‘Vision Technologies’, an Aurangabad-based company that existed only in the papers, and inducted us. Now there is no such company," she said, adding that she would "reveal" more matters connected with the chief minister soon.

‘Jayarajan’s son is excluded from implementing the AI camera project’

Swapna claimed that CPM central committee member E P Jayarajan’s son was initially considered for the AI camera project.

"Then Jayarajan was the Industries Minister. I held meetings with Jayarajan’s son twice in Dubai to discuss the project. However, when it came to the implementation stage, he was excluded. I knew well about the project. It’s mired in corruption," she charged.