KOCHI: Sumit Kumar, Commissioner of Customs (Preventive), Kochi, has informed the state advocate-general that the latter has no power as per the law to give sanction to file a petition for initiating contempt of court proceedings against him in connection with disclosing the details of deposition of Swapna Suresh.
He pointed out that, practically, the advocate-general represents the state government in the case in which he had filed the statement.
The sanction petition to initiate contempt proceedings against Sumit Kumar came before the AG for filing a statement by the customs commissioner in response to a petition filed by the state government challenging certain remarks in the Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences) Court's order to provide security to Swapna, now housed in the Women's Jail at Attakulangara, Thiruvananthapuram.
In his statement, the commissioner had stated that Swapna, prime accused in the gold smuggling case, had made a "shocking revelation" that the smuggling of foreign currency was carried out at the instance of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan. Swapna had also disclosed the chief minister's close connections with the former UAE consul-general and the illegal monetary transactions.
The petition seeking sanction for contempt of court proceedings was filed by K J Jacob, CPM leader and former Opposition leader in Kochi Corporation. The customs commissioner pointed out that the petition on behalf of the government was filed by the state prosecutor after the advocate-general examined all papers and entrusted the files with the prosecutor. As such, the advocate-general was practically appearing for the government. Besides, the advocate-general had taken a definite stand against him in the petition.