The prime accused in the gold smuggling case Swapna Suresh on Wednesday said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was telling lies in the Assembly on Tuesday .

“The Chief Minister first said he doesn’t know me, then he said she has come with UAE diplomats to his official residence. Let me tell you, I have gone to his official residence several times with UAE officials and also alone. I was allowed to walk into his residence and his office in the Secretariat without any security issues. I challenge him to release the CCTV visuals between 2016 to 2020 from his official residence and also at his office in the Secretariat,” said Swapna to the media.

In the Assembly on Tuesday, Vijayan said Swapna is a person who is an accused in gold smuggling and other cases and the Congress led Opposition is treating her words as the ultimate truth and using them here. He also referred to her as someone who is now being guided by Sangh Parivar forces.

Swapna early this month testified before a magistrate under Section 164 (5) where she claimed that Vijayan and his wife and their daughter Veena had smuggled currency to the UAE.

Swapna said it was she who had facilitated numerous meetings with the UAE Consul General at the Chief Minister’s residence which was against all protocol as permission was not taken from the Ministry of External Affairs.

“With regard to carrying currency in his luggage from here to the UAE, he used the diplomatic channel because here, given his position he can get through Customs and everything without any issues, but he wanted diplomatic immunity in the UAE and it was facilitated by us,” said Swapna.

She then turned her ire against Veena Vijayan, daughter of Vijayan, and said she was the brain behind the sale of entire Kerala’s health data bank that was handed over to Sprinklr (soon after the Covid pandemic set in).

“This was told to me by M. Sivasankar (the then principal secretary to Vijayan). He was very disturbed and told me that he might be in trouble. He shared all this with me because we were very close then. He was worried if he would be made the scapegoat and that he might be arrested as Veena was the master brain behind the data transfer to Sprinklr,” added Swapna.

She said that she has given everything regarding Veena’s IT company Exalogica to the national agencies and she also has copies of everything including videos.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed.)