KOZHIKODE: The IUML on Wednesday landed in a big mess with another photo of wanted gold smugglers along with Muslim Youth League state president Munavarali Shihab Thangal going viral in social media.In the photo which has been widely circulated, Munavarali Shihab Thangal is seen along with gold smugglers- Shahbaz and Karat Faizal- who are wanted in connection with the Karipur airport gold smuggling case registered by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). The photo was reportedly taken during the inauguration of a jewellery showroom owned byShahbaz and Karat Faizal at Koduvally in Kozhikode. The showroom was inaugurated by Munavarali Shihab Thangal.
The latest photo has surfaced at a time when other photos of Koduvally- based wanted gold smuggler Abu Laiz along with LDF independent MLAs– P T A Rahim and Karat Razack, Kozhikode DCC president T
Siddique and Muslim Youth League state general secretary P K Firoz had gone viral in the last two days.
The unholy nexus of Koduvally-based gold smugglers with political leaders in the state snowballed into a major issue when the Koduvally CPM local committee used a Mini Cooper car of Karat Faizal for CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to travel in the procession organised as part of LDF’s Jana Jagratha Yatra at Koduvally.
‘CPM can’t use photos of UDF leaders with Laiz to cover up its failings’
Kasargod: Photographs of UDF leaders with Karipur gold smuggling case accused Abu Laiz cannot be used by the CPM to wriggle out from the mess it is in, said senior IUML leader and Lok Sabha member P K Kunhalikutty. Unlike unwittingly posing for photographs, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan travelled in a luxury car owned by an accused in the gold smuggling case, he said. He took a ride in a Mini Cooper, reportedly owned by Karat Faisal, the seventh accused in the case when the LDF’s Jana Jagratha Yatra reached Koduvally. Laiz, also a native of Koduvally, is the third accused in the case. Photographs of UDF and LDF leaders and MLAs posing with Abu Laiz - a proclaimed absconder in the gold smuggling case - are doing the rounds in the social media.
“The CPM cannot use photographs of the UDF leaders with the accused to cover up its failings,” the IUML leader said. The UDF’s decision to keep away tainted leaders from the Padayorukam campaign was taken in good intention, said Kunhalikutty. “But we cannot change the course of our yatra if a tainted person is on the way,” he said.