Even as Opposition parties, the Congress and the BJP continued with their protest marches and demonstrations across Kerala demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan whose office has come under the scanner following the seizure of 30 kg smuggled gold at Thiruvananthapuram airport, Swapna Suresh, the kingpin behind the smuggling approached the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail on Thursday.
Swapna filed the bail petition through her lawyer and this may be listed for Friday. Meanwhile, an audio message, purportedly belonging to Swapna was being aired by all Malayalam news channels in which she has claimed that she was innocent and was being hunted by certain people with ulterior motives. Interestingly, she said in the message that it was because of the request made by the UAE Consulate, her former employers, that she rang up the Customs officials requesting them to release the consignment without delay.
‘I do not have anything with the Chief Minister or any other Ministers. It is true that I have met them as part of my job in the UAE Consulate to invite them for official functions held by the Consul General. Beyond this I have no dealings with anybody,” said Swapna who also claimed that she rang up the Customs officials at the instance of the UAE Consulate attache to get the consignment released.
Swapna also claimed that the detractors of the Chief Minister and other ministers were making use of her name to tarnish their image.
“You will not win in this battle as the ministers are all beyond doubt. But what you people are trying to do is to force me to take my own life,” she said in the voice recording.
Earlier in the day, Sarith, who was taken into custody on Tuesday morning from Thiruvananthapuram was sent to the Customs’ custody till July 15 by the Economic Offences Wing Court in response to a plea filed by the Customs Department.
A Vijayaraghavan, CPI(M) leader who is also the convenor of the LDF gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and blamed the Congress and the BJP for the entire episode.
“If an impartial probe is held, it would be the leaders of the Congress and the BJP who would end up as the accused. The chief minister had written to the Prime Minister asking for an impartial probe,” said the convenor.