THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In his first media interaction following the allegations levelled by gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the accusations against his family in connection with the case and the support given to these by certain quarters cannot defame him in his public life.
Responding to a query on Swapna’s allegations, Pinarayi first shot back at the reporter and asked whether he was new to the state. He reminded that such allegations were also levelled in the run-up to the assembly elections but they were proved wrong eventually. The thumping win for the LDF in the assembly elections with 99 seats has proved that the public does not believe such false allegations, he said.
“The investigating agencies probed through all means possible. It is not that they (agencies) didn’t want anything from the probe. But they were unable to find anything,” Pinararyi said. Asked about Swapna’s claim that the chief minister’s office misused the consulate’s diplomatic channel to smuggle contraband gold concealed in brass biriyani vessels to Cliff House, Pinarayi said he came to know about it only after the allegations were made. Asked whether he would take legal action against Swapna for levelling such charges, Pinarayi said he would think about it.
Stating that Swapna Suresh visited Cliff House accompanying the then UAE consul-general, Pinarayi asserted that the official was present whenever she visited his official residence.Meanwhile, responding to a written question in the assembly on Monday, the chief minister refuted all allegations by levelled by Swapna regarding his baggage during a visit to Dubai. He had not forgotten to take his baggage during his visits to Dubai, the CM said.
Swapna had alleged that the CM had left behind a bag during one of his visits and principal secretary M Sivasankar had sought her help to send it to the Gulf country. It was full of currency, she had alleged. In a written reply to an unstarred question from Opposition legislators Anwar Sadath, Shafi Parambil, I C Balakrishnan and Roji M John, the CM said he had visited Dubai five times since 2016. All the visits were of an official nature. A detailed list of programmes attended by the CM during the visits too were also included.