The Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have seized on a statement given by UAE gold smuggling case suspect Swapna Suresh to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to target Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and force his resignation on the charge of abetting economic offenders.
United Democratic Front (UDF) convener M.M. Hassan said on Sunday that the Opposition activists would stage protests at 420 centres across the State on Monday to spotlight Mr. Vijayan's ‘support’ for gold smugglers.
Mr. Hassan demanded the resignation of Higher Education Minister K.T. Jaleel for his alleged link to the international racket.
BJP State secretary K. Surendran said Swapna's deposition was an indictment of Mr. Vijayan. The BJP would intensify its protest for Mr. Vijayan's exit.
Swapna had contentiously claimed that Mr. Vijayan knew her personally and she had met him "5 to 6 times" along with former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister M. Sivasankar. She also stated Mr. Vijayan was aware of her "controversial" appointment to the State-run Space Park project.
The Congress and the BJP have sought to weaponise Swapna's averments against Mr. Vijayan.
It also seemed not lost on the Opposition parties that Mr. Sivasankar was scheduled to appear before the Customs in Kochi on Tuesday amidst intense speculation that the agency might arrest him. They have sought to use the relentless media coverage of his questioning to put the government on the back foot.
The meandering investigations into the gold smuggling case gave the impression that the probes were edging closer to higher-ups in government each passing day.
The CPI(M) has said the Congress and the BJP had put on a spin on Swapna's statement to target the administration and eclipse its achievements ahead of the local body elections. It felt that a section of the media had amplified the Opposition's propaganda war against the government.
Mr. Vijayan had clarified that he had become aware of Swapna’s appointment to the Space Park via a private consultancy only after the scandal broke. Such postings did not come to him for clearance.
Administration officials had interacted with Swapna in her official capacity as executive secretary to the UAE consulate general. The government was in the clear in the matter.
