Calling Amit Shah 'communalism personified', Pinarayi poses questions to Union Min
In a scathing attack against Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayiy Vijayan on Monday called the former "communalism personified", stating that he was jailed for the crimes of alleged "kidnapping and fake encounters", in a reference to the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case. The attack came a day after the Union Minister posed questions to Pinarayi over the gold and dollar smuggling cases. The Kerala CM asked the Union Minister whose name had been mentioned in the chargesheet of "a fake encounter and kidnapping" cases.
"Amit Shah is communalism personified. He will do anything to nurture communalism. Even though he became a Union Minister, he has not changed much. The leader of RSS which propagates communalism is here to teach us secularism," Vijayan said.
Amit Shah at a poll rally in Kerala had slammed Vijayan for attacking the central agencies probing gold and dollar smuggling cases and posed seven questions to the CM. Shah had asked whether or not the accused in the case had worked in his office and if the CM's office had tried to influence the Customs officials in the cases. He had also thrown questions about the alleged links between Swapna Suresh, CM's former Principal Secretary M Sivasankar (who is one of the main accused in the case) and asked if there were links between Swapna and Pinarayi and CM's office.
"He asked me certain questions yesterday. I would like to remind him that I was not the one who was jailed for kidnapping. Does Amit Shah remember whose name was mentioned in the chargesheet of a fake encounter case, was arrested and then jailed?," Pinarayi Vijayan asked. The same person was accused of murder, kidnapping, extortion and illegal surveillance, Pinarayi said during an election rally in Dharmadam.
He was referring to Sohrabuddin Sheikh "fake encounter case" in which Shah was arrested in July 2010. Shah, who had resigned as Gujarat Home Minister, was discharged from the case by a CBI court in December, 2014. Shah had in his speech on Sunday also mentioned about a "mysterious death related to the gold smuggling case", to which Vijayan said the matter will be probed if the Home Minister provided more details about such an incident.
Referring to the deaths of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi and her brother Tulsiram Prajapathi, Vijayan alleged "they were all fake encounter cases. Who was charged for all these crimes? The name is Amit Shah," he said, claiming the CBI court Judge BH Loya, who was hearing those cases, died mysteriously.
"Post-mortem report was reportedly tampered with. The family of the judge is still awaiting justice. Will any BJP leader talk about this? We all know about the snooping case of 2013. Later the complainant woman herself dropped the case. Who was in jail for that? If you do not act as per the position you are holding, we will be forced to list out your misdoings," Vijayan added.
Loya had died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014 when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. The Supreme Court had dismissed pleas seeking an independent probe into the death of judge Loya, ruling that he died of natural causes.
The Kerala CM, who launched the LDF campaign from his constituency for the April 6 assembly polls, also lashed out at Shah, saying he 'insulted' the state by raising various corruption allegations against the Left government.
Vijayan also accused the opposition Congress-led UDF and the BJP of opposing the Left front government in "one voice" with their leaders "concocting stories" to defame his government. Attacking the BJP, Pinarayi Vijayan said the agenda of RSS is to communally divide the society and the leader of such a party "came here to teach us secularism".
On Shah's charge that Kerala was the most corrupt, the CPI-M leader said various national and international agencies had rated and recognised it as "the least corrupt" state in the country, but the Home Minister had defamed it.
Pinarayi Vijayan has also asked Amit Shah how the gold smuggling incidents through Thiruvananthapuram Airport, which is under the Union government, had increased after the BJP came to power.
The airport had now become a "hub" of gold smuggling, he said, alleging Sandeep Nair, one of the main accused in the case, was a full-time Sangh Parivar activist.
He said even after eight months of investigation, the central probe agencies were yet to identify for whom the gold was smuggled and yet to question the people who had sent the precious metal through diplomatic baggage.
The Customs had seized around 30 kg of gold worth Rs 15 crore on July 5 last year from a diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE consulate at the airport. Besides the Customs, the gold smuggling case is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate and the National Investigation Agency.
During the course of the probe, the agencies unearthed a racket involving smuggling of dollars through the UAE consulate.
The agencies have arrested several persons, including Swapna Suresh, Sandeep Nair and CM's former principal secretary M Sivasankar, whose alleged links to the main accused led to his removal from the top post.
Watch video: Pinarayi Vijayan's speech