Pinarayi Vijayan and Swapna Suresh | Photo: Mathrubhumi
Kochi: The Kerala High Court declined to entertain the petition, seeking a probe against chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the sensational gold and dollar smuggling case. The plea was filed by Highrange Rural Development Society (HRDS) secretary Aji Krishnan.
The Kerala High Court upheld the government’s claim that the petition was invalid. The court observed that the arguments raised against the ongoing investigation are baseless and it discarded the demand to form a special investigation under the supervision of the court.
The major demand raised in the petition was to launch an investigation against the chief minister based on the accusations raised by the key accused Swapna Suresh. Suspecting the motives of the petitioner, the government argued that the petition remained invalid.
The RSS-linked NGO has been in a bad light over the appointment of Gold Smuggling Case accused Swapna Suresh as its director of the Women Empowerment (corporate social responsibility). When the row over Swapna's allegations against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan escalated, HRDS sacked her. Earlier, Aji Krishnan was arrested over the charges of encroaching on tribal land.