THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Crime Branch has formed an eight-member team to probe the case registered against the Enforcement Directorate charging the central agency of forcing gold-smuggling accused Swapna Suresh to give statements against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the reverse hawala case. The team led by SP A Shanawaz includes officers from Ernakulam too, sources said.
While two DySPs are part of the team, the demand to include cops from the local police has been kept in abeyance, a source said. The Crime Branch sleuths will question Additional Superintendent E S Bijumon, who had probed the case pertaining to the leak of an audio clip reportedly belonging to Swapna while she was in prison. In the clip, she is heard saying that the agencies were pressurising her to give statements against the CM while she was in their custody. The Crime Branch ordered the probe based on Bijumon’s report. The two woman police officers who testified before Bijumon of having seen ED officials pressurising Swapna to parrot their statements will also be questioned. The Crime Branch probe was ordered after the state government received a legal opinion suggesting that a case can be registered against ED officials for arm-twisting Swapna to give statements against the CM in the reverse hawala case.
In its FIR filed before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Ernakulam, the Crime Branch had accused unnamed ED officials of six charges, including conspiracy, fabricating documents and forcing a person to give false statement. As per the FIR, ED officials who had questioned Swapna on August 12 and 13 last year had forced her to give false statements against the CM with an intention to implicate him in the case.
Legal opinion proves key
The Crime Branch probe was ordered after the state govt received legal opinion suggesting that a case can be registered against ED officials for arm-twisting Swapna to give statements against the CM in the reverse hawala case
The Crime Branch in its first FIR had accused unnamed ED officials of six charges, including conspiracy, fabricating documents and forcing a person to give false statement