Row over Kerala CM's 'meet' with gold-smuggling accused

A day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan denied the allegations that gold-dollar smuggling accused Swapna Suresh met him, excerpts of a chat countering his version came out on Wednesday.

As per the excerpts of the WhatsApp chat, believed to be between Suresh and the chief minister's former principal secretary M Sivasankar, Suresh met Vijayan as she resigned from her job at the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram after she was transferred. It also mentions Sivasankar's efforts to find a job for Swapna in Kerala government agency for NRIs' welfare - NORKA-Roots.

The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday witnessed Vijayan getting provoked after Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan raised the issue in the house. Vijayan had said that it was a 'blatant lie' that he had a meeting with Swapna. Kuzhalnadan had even provoked him further by asking if he would move court if the allegations were false. Vijayan then replied that he did not want Kuzhalnadan's advise.

The fresh development could be embarrassing for Vijayan as the excerpts of the chat mentioned Swapna meeting him.

The ED, which had summoned the Chief Minister's additional private secretary and close aide C M Raveendran, may use these chats during the quizzing. With Raveendran skipping the quizzing scheduled for Monday citing the ongoing Assembly session, the ED would soon issue a fresh summons to him. Earlier excerpts of the chat, believed to be between Raveendran and Suresh, had come out. Raveendran also made sexually-toned remarks to Swapna.

The ED has arrested Sivasankar in connection with the Rs 4.5 crore commission involved in a UAE agency-sponsored housing scheme for the homeless in the state.