The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have separately sought a probe into the allegation that prison authorities had pressurised UAE gold smuggling case accused P. Sarith to implicate Opposition leaders in the case.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran said in a FB post that the State's correctional administration officials had coerced Sarith to name Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala as a beneficiary of the gold smuggling racket.
Mr. Sudhakaran said Mr. Chennithala, who repeatedly exposed corruption in the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, was a thorn in the side of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Now, jail authorities beholden to Mr. Vijayan had tried to use Sarith to get back at Mr. Chennithala. The accused youth had moved the NIA special court in Kochi seeking protection from official harassment at the Central Prison. The court granted him an in-camera hearing.
Mr. Sudhakaran demanded that Sarith be moved out of the Central Prison and lodged in another facility under the direct supervision of the court.
BJP State president K. Surendran and Mr. Chennithala raised similar demands.
Mr. Surendran said the prison authorities who tried to influence Sarith to implicate BJP leaders in the case were members of CPI(M) service organisations. They had forced Sarith to depose against Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan. The CPI(M) hoped to use Sarith's statement to misdirect public attention from the culpability of its leaders and score a propaganda victory against the Central government.
Mr. Chennithala said Mr. Vijayan was wreaking political vengeance for raking up the gold case during the previous LDF regime. He said the previous government was up to its neck in the gold smuggling racket.
The Central agencies had revealed that the accused had often called on Mr. Vijayan at his official residence without the knowledge of the State protocol officer, Mr. Chennithala alleged. He said the Customs and Enforcement Directorate had named Mr. Vijayan's trusted principal secretary as an accused in the case.
