Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday dismissed the anticipatory bail plea filed by Swapna Suresh and P.S. Sarith on the grounds that the charges against her are bailable and hence her plea was rejected.
Sarith is not even an accused in the case which was filed on Wednesday.
She, the prime accused in the gold smuggling case on Thursday filed an anticipatory bail plea after the Kerala Police registered a case against her on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, she revealed that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his wife and their daughter have all played a role in smuggling of gold and currency.
On Wednesday, she again repeated her allegations and said she said all this in her confession statement before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC at Kochi on Monday and Tuesday.
When the Congress and the BJP took up the issue and demanded Vijayan’s resignation, former State Minister and CPI-M supported Independent MLA K.T. Jaleel filed a case against Swapna and former seven time MLA P.C. George that they are airing baseless allegations against Vijayan to tarnish the image of the government.
On Wednesday evening after the case was filed, the Kerala Police registered an FIR against the two and charged them for conspiracy to create violence and it was against this that Swapna and Sarith, also an accused in the gold smuggling case filed an anticipatory bail plea fearing arrest by the police.
In the court, the counsel for the state government pointed out that Sarith is not even an accused and also said that the plea was filed merely to get some false information available to the public domain.
In her bail petition she had pointed out that one Shaj Kiran had approached her stating that he was close to Vijayan and CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and threatened of dire consequences if she does not withdraw her statements and in lieu of that she should issue a fresh statement absolving Vijayan and his family.
But denying of having ever said such a thing, Kiran told the media that he was a good friend of Swapna whom he came to know about 52 days back.
“We have a different relation and she is known to my wife and father also. I went and saw her yesterday and spoke to her even today. I have never met either Vijayan or Balakrishnan. All what I said to her is if she doesn’t have substantial evidence, then it might go against her. I said this just as any friend would do,” said Kiran.
Swapna then met the media from her office at Palakkad and said Kiran is and was a friend of mine.
“A few days back he was with us and when we were having dinner he said tomorrow Sarith will be picked up by the police. And on Wednesday from noon to night he was with me and said the next day a person called Nikesh Kumar who is the voice of Vijayan will come and meet me and all I should do is to hand over my mobile to him and when done, my travel ban will be lifted and I will have nothing to fear in my cases anymore,” said Swapna.
“When I was with Kiran from noon till midnight, Kiran got more than 50 calls from two additional director generals of police Vigilance – M.R. Ajithkumar and additional director general of police – Law and Order, whose name I don’t know. Tomorrow the audio clip of Kiran will probably be released by my lawyer. When you hear that everything will be very clear and if I am still alive tomorrow, we can again meet and you (media) can ask me again,” added Swapna who pointed out that she decided to file an anticipatory bail plea fearing harassment by the police.
Meanwhile, the counsel of Swapna said he told the court that the police might even arrest her.
“When I told this to the court, the court asked me to file a petition to the same. Tomorrow we will file a petition to quash the case that has been registered against Swapna as such things can never happen anywhere except in Vijayan’s domain and that’s why strange things are happening,” said R. Krishna Raj, counsel of Swapna.
–IANS