Kerala Congress leader calls Governor-Govt tussle “fake encounter”

Photo: Twitter @vdsatheesan


Kerala Governor: Senior Congress leader and Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan, on Thursday, called the ongoing confrontation between Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the LDF government in the state fake, being staged to divert public attention from grave issues of mismanagement.

Speaking to media persons in Kochi, Satheesan said the confrontation is staged to cover up the corruption and scams that took place during Pinarayi Vijayan government’s first tenure and hoodwink public opinion.

Calling the current face-off between Governor Khan and LDf government as “fake encounter”, Satheesan alleged it is being staged to divert public attention from the corruption of Rs 1,333 crore that took place during the  Covid pandemic, police atrocities, scarcity of medicines in government hospitals and sexual charges against  former ministers and former Speaker, who are senior CPI-M leaders.

He said though Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the gold smuggling case, has recorded 164 statements in the court, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) didn’t even conduct a preliminary inquiry on the allegations against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and others. The reason is the BJP and the CPI-M leaderships in Kerala have an understanding, he said. It is because of this CPI-M-BJP understanding that the SNC Lavalin case was postponed 33 times, Satheesan added.

The CPI-M and LDF which laid siege to the Secretariat based on the revelation of the solar scam accused and ordered a CBI probe against former chief minister Oommen Chandy and others,  are now saying that the revelations of Swapna Suresh have no credibility.