Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the UAE consulate smuggling case, dared Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to make public CCTV footage of his office and official residence to prove he only had “official meetings” with her.
Suresh’s challenge comes a day after the chief minister reiterated in Kerala Assembly that the allegations she made against him were “baseless”. Suresh claimed that she, along with other UAE consulate officials, met the CM at his official residence on multiple occasions without any security check.
She stepped up her attack against Pinarayi saying the personal meetings between the chief minister and UAE consulate officials were against the norms, as it required permission of the Ministry of External Affairs.
She also claimed that Pinarayi’s daughter, Veena Vijayan, engaged a US firm during the Covid crisis for patient data management, which involved the sale of human databases. According to Suresh, IAS officer M Sivasankar, who was the then secretary to Pinarayi, was made a scapegoat.
She alleged that Veena helped with Suresh’s appointment at the consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. She repeated her earlier allegations that the chief minister and his relatives offered gifts to the Sharjah ruler during his trip to Kerala, seeking support for Veena’s IT venture in UAE, which the Sharjah ruler declined.
Suresh also stuck to her earlier statement that a bag containing currency was collected from the chief minister’s office and taken to UAE by a diplomat to be handed over to Pinarayi.
(Published 29 June 2022, 17:29 IST)
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