Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 30 The principal opposition parties in Kerala - the Congress and the BJP - have been on the warpath demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan ever since the gold smuggling case surfaced in July. Now with two key arrests taking place, these two parties on Friday levelled more allegations about the role of Vijayan.
Vijayan's trusted lieutenant and senior bureaucrat M. Sivasankar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and then came the arrest of Bineesh Kodiyeri, the son of state party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in Bengaluru, also by the ED but in a case involving drug trafficking.
Speaking to the media here on Friday, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said the prime accused in the case is none other than Vijayan and the coming days will see more damaging news emerging about his role.
"The game plan of Vijayan is to place the crime on Sivasankar who is now arrested and named fifth accused, but the news is that more officials attached to Vijayan's office will also be in the dock. Today Vijayan is trying to blame Sivasankar for all his woes, but the truth is both Vijayan and his party are in a shambles," said Chennithala.
"Starting with the Sprinklr controversy, Sivasankar's hands are there in every corrupt deal which includes the Bev Q App, Pamba sand mining, E-mobility and Life Mission and all these has had the blessings of Vijayan."
"The CPI-M party organ had come out with a news item that I was given 5 i-phones by Swapna Suresh (prime accused in the gold smuggling case). I gave a written complaint to the state police chief but no action has been taken. Now the news is that one of the phone was given to Sivasankar and the most expensive phone was given to another high profile person. Everything around Vijayan's office smells bad and he has no moral or ethical right to remain in power," said Chennithala.
State BJP president K. Surendran said Vijayan's family and Swapna Suresh have a very good long standing relationship and all of them have travelled together to the Middle East.
"We know precisely who is in possession of that i-phone. Vijayan is yet to reveal what the gold smuggling gang was doing in his office. The party's silence on the arrest and role of Bineesh is baffling. Apart from Vijayan, two more of his ministers have a role and hence Vijayan has no moral right to remain in office," said Surendran.
On expected lines, state CPI secretary Kanam Rajendran came to the defence of both Vijayan and Bineesh and said their party has been complaining for long about the manner in which the Centre is using central agencies against political opponents and that's precisely what is happening in Kerala in the cases.
( With inputs from IANS )
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