Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has charged that a clandestine political understanding between the CPM and the BJP is the reason for M Shivashankar, suspended Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, getting bail in the dollar smuggling case.

Congress leader Chennithala, who is undertaking the "Aiswarya Kerala Yatra", said, " The bail of Shivashankar was on expected lines. The customs department has not properly argued in the case in the high court on Wednesday and this indicates that the BJP government at the Centre is influencing the customs department. There is no logic in this other than the understanding between the BJP and CPM and this is a nexus they are into for a Congress Mukt state which both the parties have been aiming for." BJP state president K Surendran had claimed during the investigation in the gold smuggling and the dollar smuggling cases that big fish will be netted. Shivashankar was the most powerful person to be arrested and there was no charge sheet against any minister or people's representative.

With Shivashankar walking out of prison and no senior minister or Left leader implicated in the case, the state BJP will have to do a lot of explaining to the general public as the party and its state president have been claiming that several big shots attached to the government will be arrested in the case.

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