THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the Rs 100-crore gold smuggling case in his speech in Thrissur on Wednesday, Congress state leadership has latched on to the issue. In a statement, Congress state president K Sudhakaran demanded to know the steps taken by Modi to probe the gold smuggling case. Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan alleged a CPM-BJP nexus in covering up the case.
In a veiled attack on the CMO, Modi had said everyone was aware of which office is engaged in gold smuggling. Sudhakaran recalled that five agencies had zeroed in on the CMO in connection with the probe into the case.
“But when the 2021 assembly election came, all those agencies retreated swiftly. Also, the BJP ensured that Pinarayi Vijayan got a second term. At one stage, the CM faced a slew of allegations ranging from gold smuggling case, dollar smuggling, illegal hawala transactions to foreign exchange violations which saw his principal secretary being jailed,” said Sudhakaran.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Satheesan demanded to know why the Modi government allowed the controversial office to go scot-free if the PM knew who was behind the smuggling.
“In his speech, the PM maintained he was aware of which office had been resorting to gold smuggling. Why were raids not conducted there if probe agencies were aware of gold smuggling happening there,” asked Satheesan.
On Modi’s visit, which is considered as the launch of BJP’s LS poll campaign, Satheesan exuded confidence that the saffron party will not be able to win even one seat from Kerala in the LS election.
Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said with the open statement from Modi, now it’s all the more clear about the nexus between the BJP and CPM.