Kerala gold smuggling: ED accuses police, state govt of trying to influence probe

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, March 20

Having sought cancellation of bail given to Kerala Chief Minister’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar in the gold smuggling case, the Enforcement Directorate has accused the state police and government officials of trying to influence the probe.

The top court has already issued a notice on the ED’s petition challenging the January 25 order of the Kerala High Court giving bail to Sivasankar.

The ED contended that after his release on bail, Sivasankar has been influencing other accused and using the state machinery to fabricate false evidence against the investigating officer and the ED.

The ED mentioned statements of two policemen, who were allegedly on duty to guard Swapna Suresh, prime accused in the case, between August 5 and 17 last year.

The two police officers allegedly said Suresh was pressurised by the ED to name Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan in the case. The said statements of the two policemen were submitted in an inquiry into the leakage of audio tapes allegedly containing Suresh’s voice.

The ED said the alleged statements of the two policemen were leaked to the media on March 8 and 9, “whereas Suresh did not make any such allegation of pressurising her to name the Chief Minister of Kerala or any other person”.

On March 12, another accused in judicial custody, Sandeep Nair, petitioned the sessions court alleging that he was harassed by the investigating officer while in ED custody between August 5 and 17 last year. He had alleged that he was pressurised to name the Chief Minister and three ministers in the case.

The state police were also intimidating the ED by filing a case against its investigation officer, the application alleged.

“These are cooked up stories to tarnish the image of the investigating agency and to sabotage the ongoing investigation with the help of highly influential accused and other persons. The city civil police officers are intimidating the IO by giving false statements and the state government too is giving statements that it is going to register a case against the Directorate as well as IO leading to an unprecedented situation where implementation of rule of law would be highly difficult,” the ED submitted.