Kerala’s Marxist Speaker’s educational empire dreams crashed
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (March 23, HS): P Sreeramakrishnan, the Marxist Speaker of the Kerala Legislative Assembly had plans to set up an educational empire in West Asia, according to Swapna Suresh, one of the accused in the gold smuggling scam.
In her statement to the Enforcement Directorate probing the gold smuggling and hawala transaction cases in which the Speaker had major roles, Swapna said that Sreeramakrishnan had held discussions with the ruler of Sharjah during the latter’s visit to Kerala in 2018.
Swapna said in her statement that it was she as the liaison officer of the UAE Consulate at Thiruvananthapuram who arranged the meeting between Sreeramakrishnan and the Sharjah ruler at Leela Palace Hotel at Kovalam.
She said the Speaker had consultations with the ruler to get land at subsidised rates in Sharjah for his proposed educational empire. Sreeramakrishnan had plans to invest in educational institutions in many West Asian countries, she said in that statement, excerpts of which found its way to media houses..
Sleuths of the ED were in the process of summoning Sreeramakrishnan for questioning about his role in the reverse hawala transaction. Swapna in her previous statement had alleged that the Speaker had a role in sending US dollars worth one million from Kerala to UAE by hawala route. Sreeramakrishnan had denied all charges made by her in the past but he was not available for comments about the latest media leak about his West Asian business mission.
Though Swapna had given statements naming Sreeramakrishnan and Sivasankar ( former principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan) for their roles in hawala transactions and gold smuggling, she later retracted from the versions and alleged that the ED officials had coerced and forced her to name Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as the master mind behind these activities.
The Crime Branch of Kerala Police had last week filed an FIR against ED officials for forcing Swapna Suresh to lie to them in order to tarnish the name of the chief minister.
The latest leak came at a time when it looked like the CPI(M)-led LDF has surged ahead in the race to the April 6 poll.
