Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan on Thursday alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had misled the Assembly during Tuesday's adjournment debate on the "damning" accusations raised against the latter and his family by UAE diplomatic baggage gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh.
Mr. Satheesan said the Opposition would move Speaker M. B. Rajesh to initiate breach of privilege proceedings against Mr. Vijayan on two counts.
Firstly, Mr. Satheesan alleged that Mr. Vijayan had flip-flopped on his statement that he had misused the UAE Consulate's diplomatic channel to send and receive goods without scrutiny of the Customs.
He said Mr. Vijayan had "admitted as an afterthought" that he had used the mission's services to courier him a bag he had forgotten to take on an official visit to the UAE. Such an act was a severe protocol violation. (Swapna was the Consul General's executive secretary at the time.)
Mr. Satheesan said Chief Minister’s aide and former Principal Secretary M. Sivasankar had testified to the Customs that he had enlisted the help of Swapna to send the bag to Mr. Vijayan in the UAE. Swapna had alleged that a baggage scan at the consulate had revealed currency.
Secondly, Mr. Satheesan alleged that Mr. Vijayan had "lied" to the House about his daughter Veena Vijayan's purported business association with the senior executive of a global consultancy.
The Congress had alleged that the consultancy had trade links with a US-based big data analysis firm. The company had siphoned off the personal health information of lakhs of Keralites under the pretext of using the data to predict the spread and intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data firm had several big pharmaceutical companies on its clientele. Mr. Satheesan said Swapna's statement had vindicated the Opposition's allegations.
Mr. Satheesan also dared Mr. Vijayan to face a CBI inquiry. "The LDF had referred a scurrilous case against Congress leaders based on the allegations raised by the solar scam accused to the CBI. I challenge the LDF to do the same about Swapna's accusations", he said.
