Customs records Kerala Assembly Speaker's staff statement over dollar smuggling case

Customs, probing the dollar smugglingcase, on Friday recorded the statement of Kerala AssemblySpeaker P Sreeramakrishnan's assistant private secretary whoappeared at the central agency office here in response tosummons, official sources said.

The official, K Ayyappan, appeared before the probeofficials at Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate at 9.30 amand left the office at 7 pm, they said.

As the questioning of the assistant secretary had itsecho in the state assembly where Congress-led oppositionmembers demanded the resignation of the Speaker, the CPI(M)heading the ruling coalition attacked the central agencies,alleging they were working as a ''political weapon of the BJP''.

The Customs department on Thursday had served a notice toAyyappan at his residential address in Thiruvananthapuram,directing him to appear before the investigation team here.

Customs sources said Ayyappan, responsible for chartingout the Speaker's daily programmes and travel related matters,was summoned to cross examine the evidence it had gathered onalleged involvement of some ''powerful persons'' in connectionwith the 'smuggling' of the U.S currency from Kerala to Oman.

The notice asking Ayyappan to appear for questioning wasdelivered 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 in Thiruvananthapuram to Muscat in Oman.

The matter came to light during the course of the probeby various central agencies, including the Customs, into thesmuggling of gold using diplomatic channel that was unearthedwith the seizure of Rs 15 crore worth of the precious metalfrom a baggage of the UAE consulate at the Thiruvananthapuramairport on July 5.

The Speaker had come under criticism from the Oppositionparties for inaugurating the shop of one of the accused in thegold smuggling case, Sandeep Nair, months ago.

On Friday, opposition Congress-led United DemocraticFront members raised slogans against Sreeramakrishnan anddemanded his resignation in the backdrop of Ayyappan beingquestioned by the Customs in the dollar smuggling case.

The CPI(M) state secretary A Vijayaraghavan, in a tweet,alleged the central agencies were assisting the opposition byestablishing a parallel administration in the state.

He said the party would ''expose'' the undemocratic andunconstitutional move by the BJP-led Centre against the Keralagovernment.

Sreeramakrishnan has said he did not think that thecentral investigating agencies would question him and he wouldend his political career if it was proved he had accepted evenone rupee as bribe from anyone.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)