Kannur: Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the sensational gold smuggling case, appeared before the police here on Wednesday for interrogation in connection with a defamation case lodged by CPM Thaliparamba area secretary K Santhosh.

The case was registered against her on the charge of hatching a conspiracy and levelling false allegations against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his family and CPM state secretary M V Govindan on Facebook. 

Speaking to media Swapna said that she firmly stands by her allegations and claimed she does not know Govindan. "I don't personally know M V Govindan and his son. I first heard about him from Vijesh Pillai. He had told me that they were his friends. Acting on behalf of Govindan, Vijesh offered me Rs 30 crore. He also offered to arrange a fresh passport for me to leave the country. I stand by my words and there is nothing to fabricate in the case," said Swapna.

She added that she had already handed over evidence to police to prove her allegations and there was no more evidence to give the investigation team. Swapna alleged that the police were harassing her in the name of interrogation. "Many questions posed by the investigation officer were irrelevant and had nothing to do with the case," she said.

The incident pertaining to the case happened in March. Then going live on Facebook, Swapa claimed that Vijesh, acting on behalf of Govindan had offered to pay her Rs 30 crore for handing over information she had on the chief minister, his family members and CM's additional private secretary C M Raveendran.

According to the complaint, the allegations were ment to instil fear in people's minds and incite the opposition to riot against the government. "Swapna constantly makes false and baseless allegations against the CM and other ministers. Several criminal cases have been registered against her. Such allegations made by Swapna on several occasions were used as a political weapon by the opposition leading to large-scale protests and riots in the state," the complaint said.

The complaint pointed out that Swapna's statements were baseless and without any evidence. The complaint also pointed out that the Facebook Live session was aimed at misleading people to think that Govindan, Swapna and Vijesh were related.

Swapna Suresh was questioned on Wednesday by Kannur ACP T K Ratnakumar and Payyannur DySP K E Premachandran and the team.