THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In an unprecedented move which gains major political significance in view of the coming assembly election, the Kerala cabinet on Friday decided to go for a judicial inquiry against central agencies investigating the gold smuggling and related cases. The meeting decided to appoint retired High Court judge K V Mohanan as the chairman of the Commission. The order will be issued only after clearance from the Election Commission.
The state government strengthened its stance against the central agency soon after the Crime Branch registered a case against the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The Commission will have the mandate to probe if the central agency investigation into various cases has gone astray or beyond their mandate. The Commission will consider the central agency investigation into the cases related to voice recording of gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh, letter of Sarith and three other issues.
The state government move is clearly aimed at ED officials involved in the investigation. The voice recording of Swapna has revealed that she was arm-twisted by the sleuths to implicate the Chief Minister in the case. The Commission will probe if anyone forced Swapna to give a statement against the CM. If yes, the Commission will look at who had exerted pressure on her, what was their motive and whether there was any conspiracy. The Commission will then file a report to the state government mentioning the steps to be taken against them in case there was a conspiracy in the entire episode.
The state government will have to seek permission from the Election Commission to appoint the Commission chairman as the model code of conduct is in force in the state. So an order appointing the commission will be issued only after receiving the permission of the Election Commission.
The Income Tax department on Thursday inspected the headquarters of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) looking into the details of the financial transactions made with the contractors who were awarded various projects funded by KIIFB in the last five years, following which the relationship between the state and central agencies hit a new low.