THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The office of Kerala Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan on Wednesday denied the reports published by a section of the media linking him and his office to the recent gold smuggling incident through diplomatic baggage in Thiruvananthapuram.
While stating that the reports are baseless and false, the office of the Speaker said Sreeramakrishnan himself had earlier clarified about the foreign trips made by him in connection with various programmes.
The majority of the trips undertaken by the Speaker were at the invitation of various outfits and organizations while he had also undertaken a few foreign trips for personal reasons as his siblings were abroad.
At no point of time did the Speaker travel with the accused in the gold smuggling case, his office clarified.
All the foreign trips were made after taking mandatory permission from the state government and the details of the trips are available on his Facebook page. So the media should restrain themselves from publishing baseless reports based on speculation, said the office of the Speaker in a statement.