Thiruvananthapuram/Kochi: Kerala Legislative Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan was interrogated by the Customs Department for eight hours on Friday in connection with a dollar-smuggling racket. Customs officers also examined an apartment in Thiruvananthapuram which the Speaker used to frequent.
He was faced with 50 questions, sources said.
His name, though, is not mentioned over a case of smuggling about $1,90,000 from Thiruvananthapuram to Cairo via Muscat on August 19, 2019.
A former finance chief at the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, Khalid al Shoukri, is accused of smuggling dollars. The other accused include Chief Minister’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar, Unitac Builders managing director Santosh Eapen and Sandeep Nair, an accused in the gold-smuggling case.
Though Sreeramakrishnan is not an accused, he was quizzed on the basis of the statements by Swapna Suresh and Sarith, accused in the dollar and gold smuggling cases that involved the Consulate.
The Speaker’s office said in a statement that the Customs Department had sought some clarifications from Sreeramakrishnan.
The Customs officers had told the Kerala High Court that Swapna testified that dollars were smuggled abroad with the aid of top officials at the Consulate and the connivance of the Chief Minister and the Speaker. Three ministers have also been named in the report.
The Customs department has said that the smuggled money formed a part of a bribe Unitac Builders was alleged to have paid in connection with a Life Mission housing scheme in Vadakancherry.
Customs officers went to the Speaker’s official residence in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday after serving him a notice on Thursday evening. Customs superintendent K Salil and team went to the Speaker’s house before 11 am on Friday. Sreeramakrishnan had been served two notices earlier but he cited ill health and works related to the assembly elections to excuse himself.
The officers found out that Sreeramakrishnan had called up Swapna Suresh and Sarith from a phone that belonged to his friend. Three more phones used by the Speaker were also examined.
Sreeramakrishnan's defense
Sreeramakrishnan is reported to have identified a bag the Customs officers had seized earlier from Sarith’s house. Swapna had said that the Speaker had smuggled dollars in that bag.
Sreeramakrishnan told the interrogators that he had met former UAE Consul General Jamal Al Zaabi but denied reports that they were friends. He said that he was friends with Swapna but denied any financial deals between them. “I do gift visitors a bag and a pen with the assembly’s logo, but I have never given anyone dollars in that bag,” read his statement to the Customs.
He admitted that he knew NRI Lafeer Muhammed who owned a college in Muscat but denied reports that he had invested in that college. He also said that he had visited his brother in the UAE and his sister in the United States.
The Customs sleuths also inspected an apartment at Petta in the city, where Sreeramakrishnan is believed to have stayed. He had apparently told Swapna that the apartment belongs to a relative who was abroad, the Customs officials told the high court. They examined the visitors’ register and planned to go through the surveillance footage.
Sreeramakrishnan, who was later tested positive for COVID-19, posted a Facebook video message to rebut rumours that he had tried to commit suicide. He said that he would not bow down before the calumny spread by “bloodthirsty people”.
