The sleuths of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the gold smuggling scam inspected the Kerala Government Secretariat on Thursday and examined the Closed Circuit TV camera visuals available with the General Administration Department.
The NIA is probing the role of the Chief Minister’s Office in the gold smuggling scam and wanted to examine the links between Swapna Suresh, Sarith and Sandeep Nair, the kingpins , have with M Sivsankar, the suspended principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and any other officials.
Sivsankar had been questioned by the NIA, Customs and Enforecement Directorate over the last two months. Meanwhile, the Secretariat Officials had informed the NIA that visuals of certain days could not be recorded as the CCTV system went bust because of lightning.
Sources in the Secretariat said the NIA asked for visuals of last one year from 70 cameras installed in the complex. K Surendran, president of the Kerala BJP demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Minister Vijayan as the NIA entering the Secretariat Complex was rarest of rare incident. “This is the ideal time for Vijayan to quit on his own. Kerala has never seen any central agencies entering the Secretariat till date to probe a criminal case,” Surendran told reporters at Kozhikode.
There are reports that the Secretariat officials handed over to the NIA recordings of visuals of last three months.
But R Ramachandran Nair, former chief secretary of Kerala who is also the longest serving bureaucrat in the State, said there was nothing unusual in the NIA team’s inspection of the Secretariat. “They had taken prior permission from the Secretariat. We also saw reports about a fire that broke out in the secretariat destroying certain files. The NIA is probing the role of certain persons in the gold smuggling scam. Hence there is nothing unusual in the whole episode,” said Nair.
P Rajan, former editor of Mathrubhumi, said it was good that the NIA had discussions with the secretariat officials with respect to the controversial visuals.
“The gold smuggling scam has taken much sheen off the Pinarayi Vijayan government. But as on today, it is too early to write off the prospects of the CPI(M) losing the 2021 election,” said Rajan.