Governor-CM tussle set to intensify in Kerala
The governor insisted that the anti-national activity of the chief minister was a serious matter and that he would report it to the President.
Opposition Leader in the Kerala Assembly and senior Congress leader VD Satheesan sought the reply from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI-M’s state secretary MV Govindan to the fresh allegations made by Swapna Suresh on Facebook Live. Swapna Suresh is an accused in the gold smuggling case.
Satheesan said if the accusations against the duo are false and leveled with malicious intent; they need to clarify as to whether they will take legal action against Suresh. He also wanted to know if there were middlemen hired to go between BJP and CPI-M to sabotage the gold smuggling case.
On Thursday, Swapna Suresh had accused Govindan of offering her Rs 30 crore through an intermediary to withdraw the charges she registered against the state chief minister and his family. She had even accused him of threatening her with dire consequences if she refused to accept the offer.
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In her Facebook Live, Swapna Suresh said, “I started revealing the truth after I came to know the true colours of M Shivshankar (former principal secretary to the Kerala CM). I received a phone call from one, Vijay Pillai, who wanted to have a settlement talk with me. Acting at the instance of CPM secretary Govindan, he asked me to move out of Bangalore and to stop speaking about Pinarayi Vijayan, his daughter and businessman Yussaf Ali. They offered me Rs 30 crore to buy my silence.”
She further said that Govindan threatened to “finish” her life and gave her two days’ time to take a decision despite the fact that she claimed to have no “personal agenda” against the Kerala chief minister.
Swapna, however, vowed to fight it out. “I want to tell the CM on his face, I am going to fight till the end. I have people who trust me. If I am alive, I will expose your entire business empire and don’t ever think or dare to threaten me. I’ll expose to the world your real face,” she said.
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