Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan office on Wednesday clarified that he never denied meeting gold smuggling case-accused Swapna Suresh at his office.
Swapna has been to Cliff House, the CM's official residence, for official purposes in the past, the Chief Minister's Office informed.
The CMO also released a video of the Kerala CM from a press conference October 13, 2020 wherein he states that he has met the accused with the UAE Consulate General.
'Swapna was the Secretary of the UAE Consulate General. She has visited the office whenever he visited the office,' the CM says in response to a query in the video.
Swapna Suresh had said that she would expose Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's 'lie' for claiming that he doesn't know her.
"The honourable chief minister said he doesn't know the controversial woman. That is a lie. I'll tell you this, I have met the chief minister, his wife, his daughter and son at the Cliff House several times. We discussed several matters on which actions were taken," Swapna told media-persons on Tuesday.
"If he has forgotten all that, when it is necessary I'll remind him about that through the media."
'I won't back off'
Swapna Suresh who had blacked out during an emotional appeal before the media the other day appeared belligerent on Tuesday.
"I will not back off from my 164 statement. File a case against me, one each in every police station in Kerala, no problem.
"This is a very strong decision that I've taken. If I have to back off, you have to kill me, then maybe all this will end. Even that is not a guarantee because I've provided all the evidence.”
"But if you try to torture me in a prison and get me to sign some papers, just give it a try. We shall see," said Swapna.
Swapna had alleged the involvement of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, two of his family members, former minister K T Jaleel, former Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, former principal secretary to CM, M Sivasankar, and some top bureaucrats "in anti-national activities in UAE Consulate including gold smuggling".
