Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala on Monday staged a day-long sit-in protest at his official residence here to press for the resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Leaders of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) joined the agitation, titled ‘Speak Up Kerala’, from their homes and offices across the State at 9.30 a.m.
The Opposition is accusing the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) of having fronted for international gold smugglers and anti-national elements.
Mr. Chennithala said the probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the UAE consulate-linked gold smuggling case had come embarrassingly close to the CMO.
CMO’s role
It has found that the smuggling syndicate, which had “close links” with the CMO, had channelled part of the proceeds to orchestrate domestic terror plots.
The NIA and the Customs had repeatedly questioned Mr. Vijayan's former Principal Secretary, M. Sivasankar, as part of their probe. A committee headed by Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta had found that Mr. Sivasankar had recommended Swapna Suresh, the second accused in the case registered by the NIA, for a job in the strategic Space Project programme of the Kerala government.
At the same time, Swapna was a permanent employee at the UAE consulate here. Mr. Vijayan could not ignore the committee’s damning finding and was constrained to suspend the officer from service on the charge of official misconduct. However, Mr. Vijayan could not shrug off responsibility by scapegoating Mr. Sivasankar, he said.
Charge against Jaleel
Mr. Chennithala said the government was neck-deep in the case. Its Minister for Higher Education, K. T. Jaleel, had received gifts from the UAE consulate and interacted with the foreign mission without the sanction of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan had “lowered the esteem of the Assembly” by attending a private function hosted by the smuggling case accused. He said the UDF would settle for nothing less than a CBI inquiry into the CMO’s “dealings” with the smugglers.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Mullappally Ramachandran, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Kerala Congress (M) chairperson P. J. Joseph and Indian Union Muslim League leader M. K. Muneer participated.
