Customs moves to question Kerala speaker ‘informally’

Customs has decided to take the statement of Speaker Sreeramakrishnan in connection with the dollar havala transaction next week. The dollars were taken out of the country with the help of the Egyptian accountant of the UAE consulate here, who is now in hiding.

The central agency is moving very cautiously in the issue, asking the Speaker, who occupies a constitutional position, about the case ‘informally’ to avoid any controversy. As such, no formal notice has been served.

Customs has apparently decided that a formal questioning can wait until it hears directly from Sreeramakrishnan. On the basis of what it can gather from him, it would go to the next step of formally moving against him.

Customs is in receipt of information that the Speaker and a few other top political functionaries of the state have investments in the Gulf ’s education sector. Sreeramakrishnan has accepted that he has connections with some NRIs, who are actively involved in the business.

The tip-off was gold smuggling given by kingpins

Swapna Suresh and Sarith when they were questioned separately in the jail. Their statements were later recorded confidentially in the court.

In fact, he had been using a sim card taken in the name of one of these men and he accepted in a media interview that he may have spoken to Swapna and Sarith using the phone. Curiously, the phone went dead from the time the gold smuggling case was unearthed in the middle of last year.

The Speaker says he used the sim card because at that time he did not have identity papers to take one in his own name.

Customs has questioned the owner of the sim card as well as other investors in Muscat’s Middle East College, where Sreeramakrishnan is said to have made investments.