Coimbatore: There was no pressure from the Centre on the agencies investigating the Kerala gold smuggling case to get statements from the accused against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said here on Monday. “There is no pressure of any sort on the investigating agencies, be it the Enforcement Directorate or the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The agencies are working and investigating independently,” Muraleedharan, a BJP leader from Kerala, told reporters here.
He was responding to a question on an audio clip in which accused Swapna Suresh, now in judicial custody, purportedly said the investigation agencies were trying to force her to give a statement against Vijayan. The NIA, the ED and the Customs were conducting separate probes into the smuggling of gold through the Thiruvananthapuram airport using the diplomatic channel allegedly by Suresh and others.
The Kerala police has ordered a probe into the voice clip…