ED charge sheet in PMLA court: Swapna met Kerala CM 6 times (Ld)

Kochi, Oct 7 : The ED on Wednesday filed a charge sheet in a PMLA court in Ernakulam in its probe into the money trail in the gold smuggling case, triggering another slugfest in Kerala politics after it allegedly revealed that prime accused Swapna Suresh had met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan six times.
The charge sheet was filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 against PS Sarith, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair in the District and Sessions Court (PMLA) in Ernakulam in the gold smuggling case. All three accused are in judicial custody since July.
The ED charge sheet quoted Swapna as saying that she had met Vijayan on six occasions in the presence of now-suspended IAS officer M Sivasankar and that the CM knew about her appointment in the Space Park on a salary of over Rs 1.50 lakh per month.
The Congress and the BJP leadership in the southern state were up in arms and demanded the resignation of Vijayan.
“Vijayan had said he had no clue of how she got a job in the Space Park, but the ED charge sheet says he was aware. Vijayan then said his office is not a haven for such people. That statement has since fallen flat and the onus is now on him to come clean,” state Congress President Mullapally Ramachandran said.
The over 300-page charge sheet includes Swapna’s statement that following her resignation from the UAE Consulate, she approached Sivasankar, then Principal Secretary to Vijayan and also IT Secretary, for a job.