Thiruvananthapuram: Scores of workers of the Youth Congress on Tuesday protested against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, demanding his resignation over gold smuggling case. The police were deployed at the protest site to avoid any sort of untoward incident.
Notably, on August 28, the Kerala Police cane-charged Youth Congress workers who were staging a protest demanding the same in Wayanad district.
Also, Kerala Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala had also said that the Kerala Chief Minister should take the moral responsibility and resign after Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister was linked to the case.
Last month, the NIA had arrested four accused in the Kerala gold smuggling cas. The agency has so far arraigned 25 persons as accused in the case. Of this, 20 have been arrested.
A special PMLA court in Kochi had extended the judicial custody of three key accused in the Kerala gold smuggling case — Sarith PS, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair — till September 9. The three accused were examined by the special court via video conferencing.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also submitted before the court that it has issued notices to more people who allegedly paid commissions to the prime accused Swapna Suresh.
The matter, which pertains to the smuggling of gold in the state through diplomatic channels, had come to light after 30 kg gold worth Rs 14.82 crores, smuggled in a consignment camouflaged as diplomatic baggage, was busted by Customs in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5.