The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday, 23 March, approached the Kerala High Court, seeking a CBI probe in the case registered by the Crime Branch of Kerala Police against officials of the central agency. The Kerala Police had registered the case against ED officials for allegedly forcing Swapna Suresh, the key accused in the gold smuggling case, to give statements implicating Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. According to LiveLaw, the matter was mentioned before a bench of Justice VG Arun on Tuesday.
The case filed by Kerala Crime Branch was registered under various sections of the IPC after Swapna Suresh was questioned by the ED on 12 and 13 August 2020, and an audiotape surfaced where Swapna purportedly said she was allegedly forced to give false statements against the Chief Minister in order to create fake evidence.