THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The special police team on Monday recorded the statement of MLA K T Jaleel, who has filed a complaint against Swapna Suresh and former MLA P C George, for allegedly defaming the chief minister by dragging his name in the gold smuggling case and trying to orchestrate riots in the state.
The officers from the special team recorded the MLA’s statement in Malappuram. Jaleel told the officers that the allegations made by Swapna were intended to engineer a riot in the state.The police team will now record the statement of Shaj Kiran, an ex-journalist, who allegedly pressured Swapna to withdraw her statements against the CM. The police sources said Shaj’s statement is likely to be recorded at the crime branch office in Kochi on Wednesday.
Only after recording Shaj’s statement the police team will decide on questioning Swapna and George. The police have confirmed that Swapna and George had met at a guest house in Ernakulam. The police will visit the place and record the statements of the guest house staff later.
Meanwhile, the special team met at the police headquarters on Monday to review the case. This was the first meeting in which all 12 members and crime branch ADGP Shaik Darvesh Saheb, who is the monitoring officer of the case, met in person. The police team has been split into several groups, each being assigned particular tasks, said sources.
“They will meet in Thiruvananthapuram 15 days later to review the progress in the probe. The coordination of the probe spanning the state will be done from Thiruvananthapuram,” a source said. Meanwhile, it has been decided to hold further meetings of the special team only in offline mode. Sources said this was done to maintain secrecy of the probe.