Express News Service
KOCHI: Kerala Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel was questioned by India’s main counterterrorism agency, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) throughout the day on Thursday, even as opposition parties led by Congress undertook statewide protests leading to violence and lathi-charge police in many parts.
The minister who entered the NIA office in Kochi at 5:55 am left alone at 4.57 pm and spent an 11-hour marathon inside the agency building.
Jaleel was questioned by the NIA for details about his ties to Swapna Suresh, the main defendant in the Kerala gold smuggling scandal. After Swapna’s arrest in July, details of the mobile call retrieved by the NIA revealed that he had contacted Jaleel on several occasions. However, the minister claimed that he had contacted her on the instructions of the UAE Consul General in Thiruvananthapuram.
Police dismiss the Youth Congress workers who arrived at the NIA office in Kochi, demanding the resignation of the Kerala Minister of Higher Education #KTJaleel, who is being questioned regarding #KeralaGoldSmugglingCase.
Express video | @sanesh_TNIE.@xpresskerala @ shibasahu2012 pic.twitter.com/VCyX868ReU– The new Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) September 17, 2020
Jaleel’s subpoena by the NIA on Thursday comes a week after he was questioned by another central agency, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), for two days, on Thursday and last Friday, for any violation of the Act. of the Prevention of Money Laundering of 2002 (PMLA).
To prepare for the questioning, NIA officials had held a meeting with ED officials Wednesday at the latter’s office here to study the statement given by the minister.
Although the NIA had asked him to report at 9 a.m. Thursday, the minister arrived three hours earlier, a move clearly intended to escape the gaze of the media. The minister arrived in Kochi by road from the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram, from where he left last night. He stopped by the PWD Rest House at Kalamassery in Kochi early this morning to freshen up, before driving to the NIA office.
The minister arrived at the NIA office in a white Toyota Ethios, which belonged to the CPM leader and former MLA AM Yousuf. Wearing his usual public attire, a white mundu and shirt and holding a black bag, the minister was seen disappearing into the NIA office at Girinagar in the city.
But when the news leaked, protests broke out across the state, and activists from opposition parties called for Jaleel’s resignation. Dozens of workers from the Youth Congress and Yuva Morch – the youth wing of Congress and the BJP – were injured in the police lathi-charge in various parts of the state.
Sources said the NIA has compiled details about copies of the Quran that Jaleel received from the UAE consulate and which were transported in a government vehicle to various locations in Kerala. Jaleel claimed that he had received around 300 copies of the Quran, while the UAE consulate is estimated to have imported more than 7,500 copies.
With protesters choosing to reach the NIA office demanding the minister’s resignation, police blocked the road leading to the counterterrorism agency office in the morning. More than 50 police officers were also deployed to prevent protesters from reaching the NIA office. Several activists from the Youth Congress were also detained and removed from the scene.
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