Kochi:
The Customs, probing the dollar smuggling case, on Friday issued notice to Kerala Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, directing him to appear before its probe team on March 12, official sources said here on Friday.
The notice was issued after several attempts to get his statements in connection with the smuggling, including his travel abroad and other details, did not bear fruit,they said.
“He is a person of interest for us” in connection with the smuggling case, an official said.
The development comes on a day the Customs claimed that prime accused in the Kerala gold smuggling case, Swapna Suresh has made “shocking revelations” against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the Speaker and some ministers with regard to dollar “smuggling” involving UAE consulate officials.
“She has stated with clarity about smuggling of foreign currency at the instance of the Hon’ble chief minister and the Hon’ble Speaker with the help of the Consulate,” the Customs claimed in a statement filed in the Kerala High Court on Friday.
Earlier, in January this year, Customs had recorded the statement of Sreeramakrishnan’s assistant private secretary in connection with the probe into the case related to alleged smuggling of USD 1,90,000 (equivalent to Rs 1.30 crore) by a former finance head of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram to Muscat in Oman.
The official, K Ayyappan, had appeared before the probe officials at Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate on January 8.
Customs sources had then said Ayyappan, responsible for charting out the Speaker’s daily programmes and travel related matters, was summoned to cross examine the evidence it had gathered on alleged involvement of some “powerful persons” in connection with the “smuggling” of U S currency from Kerala to Oman.
