Gold smuggling case: Clock ticks for Vijayan & his ex-aide

Thiruvananthapuram : With the Kerala High Court set to pronounce its final orders on Wednesday in the anticipatory bail plea in the gold smuggling case all eyes are on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his former secretary M. Sivasankar. It is Sivasankar who has filed the plea.

Though Vijayan and the CPI-M, has washed their hands off the case that involves the senior IAS official, Sivasankar, by stating they have had no clue of what he was doing for the nearly four and a half years, yet the Chief Minister's name has been a part of the case through out.

Whatever was said about former Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, each time when allegations of corruption surfaced ahead of the 2016 assembly polls in the solar scam case, is reverberating thick, and has come to haunt Vijayan in the gold smuggling case.

What trolls said then for Chandy is now being repeated for Vijayan: "If he has any scruples and shame, he should quit".

Each time when Vijayan's political adversaries remind him of what he said about Chandy, when he and his office was caught in the solar scam led by Saritha Nair, Vijayan's stock statement was, "I do not know anything." Then when Sivasankar's closeness with prime accused in the gold smuggling case- Swapna Suresh surfaced, Vijayan said: "We removed him and then suspended him from service. Who else, other than we can take such a decision,".

The high court last week extended the status quo -- asking both the Enforcement Directorate and the Customs not to arrest Sivasankar till Wednesday, when the court will give its orders.

With regards to the Life Mission case, which is seen as the pet project of Vijayan, which provides homes for the homeless and built using the funds provided by private organisations -- here too, Vijayan is caught between the devil and the deep sea, as it has now been revealed Swapna was able to secure a huge commission alleged to be as high as Rs 9 crore for total project cost of Rs 20 crore that came from a UAE-based charity -- Red Crescent.

The CBI has commenced a probe as it started to reach the higher echelons of power.

Vijayan and his party is set to come up with a law to ban the entry of CBI into the state, similar to what states like West Bengal, Maharashtra and a few others.

At present the Life Mission probe of the CBI has been partly stayed by the High court and the premier agency has approached the court to get the partial ban lifted.

Principal opposition parties -- the Congress and the BJP have targetted Vijayan for his double standards -- while at one time he had proclaimed he has nothing to fear any agency could probe -- now when the probe has begun, the Left leader is trying to stop the investigations using the court or by coming out with fresh laws.

The next 24 hours are certainly crucial not just for Sivasankar but for Vijayan and his party, as two crucial polls -- local body and assembly elections are just round the corner.