Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan alleges of attempt to tarnish govt's image

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday reiterated that the state government had no links with the gold smuggling row and his secretary M Sivasankar was kept off the office just because some allegations came up against him and not that he was found involved in it.

Vijayan also told reporters that the opposition parties were trying to tarnish the image of the government as elections are approaching. He also warned of legal actions against circulating pictures of the woman facing probe for gold smuggling standing close to him at some functions and spreading baseless information that he was having links with her.

He said that former employee of UAE consulate, Swapna Suresh, who is allegedly involved in gold smuggling using diplomatic baggage, got a job at the Space Park under the state IT department through a private recruiting firm. It was the usual practice to outsource recruitment to such projects through private agencies.

Meanwhile, Kerala former Chief Minister and Congress leader Oommen Chandy, who earlier faced a similar allegations linking him with a con woman, said in a social media post that the present row reminds him of the allegations he had faced while being the CM. However he was not feeling happy over the fresh row, but would only demand the government to order a CBI probe, said Chandy.