THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the LDF government in Kerala abruptly removed Director of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau M R Ajith Kumar in a late-night order, the opposition Congress demanded that the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan explain his silence in the wake of allegations made by a key suspect in a gold smuggling case.

V D Satheesan, the state Assembly's Leader of Opposition, claimed that the police sought to persuade Swapna Suresh, a crucial witness in the gold smuggling case, to delete a recent testimony in which she made new allegations against the Chief Minister and his family. Noting that Vijayan and his government were heading in the wrong way without taking legal recourse, he encouraged the Chief Minister to break his silence, saying that he owed it to the people to tell them everything.

He also demanded an explanation from the BJP leadership as to why the central agencies had not launched an investigation on the new information provided by the accused.  He said that Shaj Kiran, a former journalist whose audio clips were leaked by Suresh on Friday, was being used by the police to settle the case.

He claimed that the former vigilance head had contacted Kiran 33 times, and that the former journalist, who had previously persuaded Suresh that her statement before the court was a good move, later tried to persuade her to remove it on police orders.

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