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Thiruvananthapuram, June 17 . The Congress in Kerala asked on Friday why the BJP is going soft on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan despite the latter being under scanner for his alleged involvement in controversial cases.
Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Benny Behanan told mediapersons here, “Not a single case against Vijayan is going in the right direction. In the Lavalin corruption case, the hearing has been deferred some 30 times till now.
“The central agencies showed promise in their initial investigation into the gold smuggling case, but they have been silent for the past several months.
“On the one hand the BJP uses the ED to target political adversaries like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, but on the other hand it is protecting people like Vijayan, which is strange.”
Behanan said the national agencies are silent even after Swapna Suresh, the main accused in the gold smuggling case, made some explosive revelations recently.
“In the gold smuggling case, there have been fresh revelations that directly point towards Vijayan and his family members. But instead of taking legal recourse, Vijayan is using the police to round up those who have spoken against him. We all saw how the friend of Swapna Suresh (P.S. Sarith, an accused in the case) was literally ‘kidnapped’ by the Vigilance team and asked questions over the fresh revelations,” added Behanan.
Behanan also pointed out how former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had filed a defamation petition against his successor V.S. Achuthanandan in the court and won, saying that’s what Vijayan should do.
“Vijayan is clearly in the dock as initially he said he didn’t know Swapna Suresh, only to change his version later. Despite numerous revelations pointing towards him, not a single CPI-M leader or from the Left Democratic Front has spoken a word. Is there no one in the Left who has the guts to ask Vijayan to step down,” asked Behanan.
