New Delhi: A ‘leaked’ audio recording of a telephone conversation allegedly between defendants in the Kerala Swapna Suresh gold smuggling case and an anonymous person has created a controversy. According to The Hindu, the recording indicates that the Directorate of Execution (ED) may have been trying to coerce Suresh into testifying against Prime Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
According to the newspaper, the recording appeared on Wednesday and suggests that the DE was asking Suresh to become an approver, on the condition that she accuse Vijayan and his main secretary, M. Sivasankar, of wrongdoing.
the Indian express reports that in the clip, Swapna is allegedly heard saying that it will be approved if he says he went to the UAE with Sivasankar, who was representing the prime minister. He also says that “they” (Emergency Department officials) did not allow him to read his own statement and simply checked it before signing.
Suresh and Sivasankar are currently in custody in the gold smuggling case. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) has been alleging that the ED is using the case to try to implicate the prime minister. Sivasankar, who was denied bail earlier this week, has also alleged that he was arrested and is in custody due to his refusal to depose against Vijayan.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a statement that central agencies were interested in implicating the prime minister’s office in the case. The Bharatiya Janata Party, according to the CPI (M), is using the ED to destabilize the state government. The ED has denied these allegations and also claimed that the CMO was aware of the gold smuggling operations and did nothing to stop them.
Kerala police are reportedly investigating the veracity of the recording. According to the New Indian Express, Suresh has confirmed that the recording is real and said the conversation took place while he was in the custody of investigating officers and not in jail.
The BJP and Congress have said that the leaked audio is an attempt by the government to derail the investigation. The Union Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said the tape was an attempt by the “sordid” Vijayan government to play the victim at the local polls. “The CM office is behind the latest development,” said Mullapally Ramachandran, head of the Kerala congressional unit.
In a surprising move, the Center recently extended the fixed two-year term of the Director of the Department of Education, Sanjay Kumar Mishra, for another year. How The wire mentioned, Mishra is conducting investigations into money laundering charges against a large number of opposition leaders.
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