Ker Assembly Speaker's personal staff appears before Customs

Kerala Assembly Speaker PSreeramakrishnan's assistant private secretary on Fridayappeared before Customs officials probing the dollar smugglingcases in the state, sources said.

The Customs department on Thursday had served a noticeto the official, K Ayyappan, at his residential address inThiruvananthapuram, directing him to appear before theinvestigation team in Kochi.

Ayyappan was responsible for charting out theSpeaker's daily programmes and travel related matters.

Customs sources said Ayyappan was summoned to crossexamine the evidence it had gathered into the allegedinvolvement of some powerful persons in connection with thesmuggling of dollars.

The notice asking Ayyappan to appear for questioningwas delivered at his residential address on Thursday after theSpeaker maintained that his prior permission was required tointerrogate a member of his personal staff.

The central agency had earlier issued summons toAyyappan at his official address in connection with the probeinto the case related to alleged smuggling of USD 1,90,000(equivalent to Rs 1.30 crore) by a former finance head of theUAE Consulate here to Muscat in Oman.

The Speaker had come under criticism from theOpposition for inaugurating the shop of one of the accused inthe gold smuggling case, Sandeep Nair, months ago.

Sreeramakrishnan has said he did not think that thecentral investigating agencies would question him.

''I am fully confident that there was no lapse from myside. So I have no anxiety,'' he said on Thursday, adding thathe would end his political career if it was proved that he hadaccepted even one rupee as bribe from anyone.