The Opposition is popping the warmth on the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala over its curious reticence in responding, politically and legally, to allegations of sexual exploitation in opposition to three senior social gathering leaders by a 2020 gold smuggling case accused.
Whereas the newest tussle between Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the state authorities, over the situation of vice-chancellors, has helped the CPI(M) divert consideration from the allegations, its silence is ringing loud.
The transfer is in sharp distinction to the style during which the CPI(M) had reacted when an accused within the photo voltaic scandal case had levelled related allegations in opposition to a number of Congress leaders.
Final week, the important thing accused within the gold smuggling case, Swapna Suresh, alleged that former finance minister Thomas Isaac, former temple affairs minister Kadakampally Surendran, and former Meeting speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, the entire CPI(M), had sought sexual favours from her after they had been in workplace, through the earlier LDF regime between 2016 and 2021.
Suresh, who had served as govt secretary on the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, raised the recent allegations as a sequel to the publication of her autobiography, “Chathiyude padmavyuhathil (Padmavyuha of betrayal)”. Of the three leaders, solely Kadakampally is now a legislator, whereas Sreeramakrishnan is the vice-chairman of Norka Roots, the state division for affairs of expatriates, and Isaac is a central committee member of the CPI(M).
Suresh alleged that every one in all them had sought sexual favours from her. When the leaders accused her of performing on the BJP’s behest, she dared them to sue her and threatened to disclose proof in opposition to them.
Defending the social gathering’s silence on her allegations, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan mentioned Suresh doesn’t have any credibility. “She has been elevating such allegations, all of that are baseless. We now have determined not to answer her newest claims,’’ he mentioned.
Accusing the CPI(M) of double requirements, Congress legislator and Opposition chief V D Satheesan mentioned that within the photo voltaic case, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had instantly obtained a criticism from the lady accused within the scandal as a way to arrange a probe in opposition to Congress leaders, together with former CM Oommen Chandy, on the allegation that that they had sexually exploited her.
“Vijayan ought to clarify how the identical social gathering and authorities that had discovered the allegations raised by Saritha Nair, the accused within the photo voltaic scandal, credible, is now discovering the phrases of (gold smuggling accused) Swapna not plausible. Utilizing Nair, the CPI(M) had tried to defame Chandy and different Congress leaders. Now, Suresh has deposed earlier than a Justice of the Peace. The Congress challenges the CM and his social gathering to take authorized motion on her allegations in opposition to the CPI(M) leaders. If her allegations are baseless, the CPI(M) ought to present the braveness to take authorized motion in opposition to her,’’ mentioned Satheesan.
Whereas Nair had alleged that Chandy, AICC normal secretary Okay C Venugopal and three different Congress leaders had sexually exploited her, a state crime department probe in 2017 had not discovered something. Subsequently, in January 2021, Nair had handed over a criticism to Vijayan who, in flip, had referred it to the CBI. The 2017 criticism had included the title of Jose Okay Mani, a Kerala Congress (M) chief. However when she approached Vijayan with a recent criticism in 2021, the title of Mani, who had by then moved to the ruling LDF, was lacking. BJP nationwide president A P Abdullakutty’s title additionally figured in each the complaints.
Just like the CPI(M) leaders now, Congress leaders, together with Venugopal, had by no means bothered to sue Nair. Nonetheless, octogenarian Chandy had challenged it, shifting the Excessive Courtroom to quash the case in opposition to him. He additionally sued CPI(M) veteran V S Achuthanandan within the case. Not too long ago, the court docket ordered Achuthanandan to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to Chandy.
Though the CPI(M) shouldn’t be giving a lot credibility to Suresh’s newest revelations, the social gathering has been utilizing an audio clip, purportedly attributed to her, in a bid to indicate that central businesses had been attempting to tug Vijayan’s title into the gold smuggling scandal.
In 2020, whereas Suresh was in judicial custody, an audio clip had emerged, during which she was allegedly heard saying she could be allowed to turn out to be an approver if she confessed that she had gone to the UAE with M. Sivasankar — former principal secretary to CM Vijayan and an accused within the case — to hold out monetary negotiations on behalf of the CM. A probe by Central businesses into the audio clip had then revealed that the state police had obtained it to indicate that she was underneath stress to admit in opposition to the CM.
The CPI(M) had then given a lot credibility to this audio clip, alleging that the central businesses had been attempting to focus on Vijayan.