Order to detain Sarith a mystery

KOCHI:  Two days after ADGP M R Ajith Kumar was removed from the post of vigilance director, it remains a mystery who ordered the custody of P S Sarith, given that the vigilance department’s official decision was only to issue a summons for the gold smuggling case accused to appear before the probe team in Thiruvananthapuram on June 16, a source told TNIE.

R Krishnaraj, counsel for Swapna Suresh and Sarith, confirmed that the vigilance department had indeed issued the summons to Sarith but it was handed over to him only when he was released from custody. “The situation never warranted custody. The police team that took Sarith from his flat seized his phone.

When he was let off after questioning, he was given a receipt for the phone seizure and also the summons,” he said. A source with the state intelligence wing said top echelons of the government were unaware of the move to take Sarith into custody from a flat in Palakkad last Wednesday. It was a clandestine operation plotted hurriedly by a “closed group” to find out who had instigated Swapna to give a statement under Section 164 of CrPC against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the source said.

When the operation backfired, the “closed group” came under sharp criticism for the “foolish” move, the source said. “The decision to issue a summons was discussed openly but the abduction plot wasn’t,” the source said. Inspector General H Venkatesh, who has been given full additional charge of the vigilance department, refused to comment on the issue.