KOCHI: In the light of gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh’s allegations against Pinarayi Vijayan and his family members, the Enforcement Directorate’s next move will be crucial for the chief minister. According to ED sources, a petition for receiving a copy of the secret statement given by Swapna will be filed at the Special Court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Case soon.
Swapna has claimed the involvement of Pinarayi, his wife Kamala, daughter Veena, former minister K T Jaleel, bureaucrats M Sivasankar and Nalini Netto and CM’s additional private secretary C M Raveendran in the smuggling case. Swapna approached the court claiming that her life was under threat and gave a secret statement under Section 164 of CrPC to a judicial first class magistrate court in Kochi on Monday and Tuesday.
“Swapna volunteered herself to give the statement at the court. She had neither approached us nor had we requested the court to record her statement. So, we have to first check what she had stated before the court. She had given CrPC 164 statement in the customs case before. We have to check whether any new revelations have been made in her recent statement. We will launch a probe after accessing Swapna’s recent statement,” an official said.
Officials of ED said if there are new revelations in Swapna’s statement, an investigation can be carried out against the CM, his family members, bureaucrats and other former ministers. “Earlier, we had looked into the role of the CM, other ministers and bureaucrats in the case. We have filed a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) in the case. However, if any new evidence emerges, we can conduct further investigation,” an official said.
Advocate Nireesh Mathew who represents several accused persons in the gold smuggling case said ED can launch a probe against the CM based on Swapna’s new statement. However, a statement under Section 164 of CrPC is not enough. “Based on this statement, ED can launch a probe against the CM and even summon him for interrogation. The CrPC 164 statement recorded by the magistrate has no higher evidentiary value than CrPC 161 statement recorded by the investigation officer. No one can be convicted solely on the basis of the CrPC 164 statement. There should be evidence to corroborate the claims made in the CrPC 164 statement,” he said.
According to him, Swapna had given a CrPC 164 statement in the customs case and the agency had filed a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) before the court. “Some of the revelations made by Swapna on Tuesday did not reflect in the prosecution complaint of the customs though both the customs and ED cases were based on the same incident. The delay in making new revelations would be questioned in the court,” he said.