THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With reports coming in that he had contacted smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh on the phone eight times, Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel on Tuesday clarified that he had contacted her as directed by the UAE consul-general in connection with distribution of Ramzan food kits by the consulate.
After news channels showed Swapna’s call list showing the minister’s phone number, Jaleel also shared the message that the consul-general had sent him regarding the kit distribution. He said all calls made to Swapna were official and were not at odd hours.
“The consulate used to distribute food kits during Ramzan. This year, it didn’t happen due to the lockdown. So, the consul-general messaged me on May 27 expressing his wish to distribute the food kits and I agreed to make arrangements through Consumerfed. The consul-general messaged me that Swapna would contact me,” he said.
Following this, around 1,000 food kits were distributed in Edappal and Triprangode in Malappuram. Responding to questions on repeated calls to Swapna, he said he had called her to coordinate the kit distribution and also called her when the payment to Edappal Consumerfed, through which the distribution was arranged, was delayed. He said he had known Swapna for four years as the UAE Consul-General’s secretary and she had also visited his office to invite him to the UAE National Day celebrations. The phone number of Jaleel’s staff member was also in the call list of Sarith P S, another accused in the smuggling case. Jaleel said he isn’t aware of those calls and let the NIA investigate it, if needed.
Pinarayi backs minister
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan supported Jaleel saying the latter has clarified and there isn’t any scope for unwanted controversies regarding this. “There were no hour-long talks. It was the consul-general who asked the minister to contact this woman. The minister has explained this. Such allegations made earlier were natural. Now that the minister has clarified, why do you have suspicion?”