On July 12, Kerala saw a car chase that would put Formula 1 races to shame. It started at 11.30am at the Walayar border in Palakkad and ended at 1pm in Aluva, Ernakulam. The route was the NH544; the distance covered was 138km. The participants were three police vehicles and a bevy of media cars.
Inside one of the police vehicles were Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, the second and fourth accused in the gold-smuggling case that shook the state earlier this month. The NIA had nabbed the duo from Bengaluru the previous night; they were about to escape to the northeast. The chase ended in Kochi after they underwent Covid-19 tests in Aluva. Both were presented before the NIA court and were remanded to 14 days custody.
The duo has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and had been, according to the NIA, using the diplomatic channel to smuggle gold for the past one year. The luggage that was nabbed at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport on July 4 was addressed to Rashed Khamis Ali Musaiqri Alshemeili, charge d’affaires at the UAE consulate in Kerala. The 30kg gold was “camouflaged” amid eatables. According to the customs department, Suresh had been using her contacts as a former UAE consulate official to run the smuggling network with Sarith Kumar, a former public relations officer at the UAE consulate. It is still unclear who paid for the gold and for whom it had been sent.
Apart from the diplomatic angle, the highlight of the case is the connection between Suresh and M. Sivasankar, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s principal secretary. Though the IAS officer was immediately removed from the post, the opposition alleged that Vijayan was trying to protect him. “The buck stops with the chief minister. Removing the secretary will not be enough,” said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala. “The chief minister is afraid that his office will be investigated, so he is trying to save face by removing the secretary.”
Vijayan, on his part, maintained that the government had nothing to hide. “If someone has made a mistake, they will pay for it,” he said. “We will not protect anyone.” Vijayan had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting a coordinated investigation by all central agencies as the matter was “extremely serious”, and had implications for the nation.
But the opposition was not ready to buy this, and there were protests across the state demanding Vijayan’s resignation. The Congress-led United Democratic Front has announced that it would move a no-confidence motion against the state government.
The involvement of Sivasankar, whom Vijayan had handpicked as his principal secretary, is certainly a huge setback to the chief minister’s image. It has also led to criticism of his centralised style of functioning.
“The issue is not Sivasankar, but the neoliberal capitalist policies being pursued by the left government,” said political observer M.N. Pearson. “All these deviations are part of that.” He added that the left government had lost its moral high ground.
A senior LDF leader, who did not want to be named to avoid “precipitating the matter further”, said, “Sivasankar may have been a good officer, but ever since he was appointed as personal secretary to the chief minister, he had been acting in a high-handed manner. He has committed many mistakes in the past four years. But because of his proximity to the chief minister, others were hesitant to point them out.”
Other parties in the LDF are also critical of Vijayan for not suspending the IAS officer despite the customs questioning him.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders, however, insisted that Vijayan was not someone who plays to the gallery. “The government has already appointed a committee headed by the chief secretary to look into the matter,” said CPI(M) state committee member M.B. Rajesh. “Its report will be out and action will be taken accordingly. The left government has nothing to worry.”
What it does have to worry about, some left leaders admit, is the new lease on life the Congress has received because of the case. The party had seemed listless of late, especially in the face of the goodwill the government had earned for its effective handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As for the left, Suresh’s call records, gathered by the investigators, have further complicated matters. Among the people Suresh called was State Higher Education and Minority Welfare Minister K.T. Jaleel. The minister, however, said the calls took place when Suresh was executive secretary at the UAE consulate general office. “It was the consulate general who himself asked me to get in touch with Swapna in connection with Ramzan relief. I have nothing to hide,” Jaleel said while releasing details of the WhatsApp conversation and calls.
On July 14, the customs department questioned Sivasankar for nearly seven hours. The agency is expected to question him again as Suresh’s call records indicate close links between them. Customs seems to be certain that Sivasankar was also close to the other accused.
Meanwhile, the customs department, which is also investigating the case, has arrested T. Rameez, a Malappuram-based businessman. According to the NIA, Rameez is the crucial link in the smuggling case and had been doing this for nearly a decade. His family ties with Indian Union Muslim League leaders has added fuel to the already raging political fire.
“The case has tarnished the image of the Pinarayi government, while also exposing the smuggling links of the Muslim League,” said BJP leader Sandeep Warrier. “The BJP has no political agenda in this case. But we are sure that the people of Kerala, who are fed up with both the fronts, will come closer to us.”
Pearson agreed. “The BJP will use this case to prove that the Muslim politics in the state is totally funded by the Gulf,” he said. “Till now, all these were mere allegations, but now they will create the proof.”
BJP president J.P. Nadda, while addressing a virtual gathering in Kasargod on the day Swapna was brought to Kochi, said, “We all know how the LDF and the UDF have joined hands to fight the idea of the BJP in Kerala, but our karyakartas are determined to see that, in times to come, there will be kamalam, kamalam and kamalam (lotus, lotus and lotus) not just in Kasargod, but throughout Kerala.”
However, the BJP might also have some explaining to do. Customs has questioned Hariraj, a cargo clearing agency owner, on the suspicion that he had tried to get the baggage with the smuggled gold cleared at the airport. He has been linked to the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Hariraj, however, has denied the association.