KOCHI: After two women police officials on guard duty at Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Kochi revealed that the central agency compelled the gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh to name Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, now another accused Sandeep Nair has come out with a similar allegation against the investigators. However, ED officials consider it as tactics of the accused to get bail in the case.
Sandeep is the fourth accused in the case registered by ED probing money laundering behind the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case. Sandeep who currently lodged at Poojapura Central Jail facing COFEPOSA detention wrote a letter to Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court claiming that ED officials threatened him to name Pinarayi Vijayan, two ministers and the son of an influential person in the case.
"While in ED custody for 14 days, investigation officer Radhakrishnan told me that if I name Chief Minister, two ministers and son of an influential person, the agency will help in getting bail. During the ED custody, I was denied proper sleep, physically tortured and threatened. When I pleaded, Radhakrishnan threatened that there will be more consequences. The officer included several matters in the charge sheet that has no connection with the case like scripting a movie to showcase that ED could able unearth evidence that other investigation agencies failed to get," stated in the letter.
He alleged Radhakrishnan later came to jail for interrogation with names of some influential persons and companies. "At the jail, he told me names of some of the companies which I never heard of before. He threatened me to say that some influential persons have an investment in these companies. He told me that if I admit these names, the agency will not object when my lawyer files a bail petition at the court. If required the agency will appoint a good lawyer for me, " Sandeep stated in the letter.
According to Sandeep, he objected to saying the names and asked the ED officer why the agency is scripting false facts in the case. On which the ED officer said that he has a direction from his higher-ups. The ED officer threatened Sandeep that if he doesn't give a statement as script made by the agency, he will never come out of jail.
Sandeep also alleged that ED is only interested in the political aspect of the gold smuggling incident as persons who smuggled gold and those funded them are yet to be arraigned as accused even after seven months since the investigation started. He said when influential persons with money and political backup could able to get bail, people like him are still behind the bar even after having no connection with the money laundering aspect of the case.
He said that he has a bedridden mother, a mentally ill brother, a wife and a daughter at the house. He said his family members are also facing life threat after the case was registered.
However, ED officials said that Sandeep intends to get bail in the case. "He was examined by the court on numerous time and he never raised such a complaint then. From the letter, it is quite clear that he is desperate to get bail. So he has come out with a false allegation against our officer," an ED official said.