Police Pressurising To Disclose Evidence Given To ED Against Chief Minister- Swapna Suresh Moves Kerala High Court

Swapna Suresh has approached the Kerala High Court seeking to restrain the Kerala Police from harassing her to disclose details of her statement given under Section 164 of CrPC, reportedly against the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan and his family.

Swapna has also alleged that she is being coerced by Police to replace her present Advocate, Krishna Raj.

Swapna Suresh, an accused in the gold smuggling case, has filed an application in her petition seeking to quash the case registered against her on the complaint of the MLA and former Minister K. T. Jaleel under Sections 120 B and 153 of the IPC alleging that Swapna has spread rumours and made false statements against him and the Chief Minister, thereby attempting to incite people for rioting.

In her application for bail in the said case, Swapna had alleged that one Shaji Kiran had come to her office as instructed by the Chief Minister, asking her to retract her statement given before the Judicial First Class Magistrate III, Ernakulam under Section 164 of the CrPC.

Swapna alleges in the new application that the majority of the time during her interrogation was spent harassing her so as to coerce her to disclose the details of the statement given by her. "The police seriously coerced and pressurised me to disclose the evidence I had given to the Enforcement Directorate against the Chief Minister his daughter and others", her application says.

"The police also threatened me that if I do not avoid the job at HRDS and get rid of my present Advocate they will arraign me as an accused in all the 770 cases registered all over Kerala taken in the wake of the agitation conducted by the opposition political parties against the Chief Minister" Swapna says in her application. HRDS is an NGO where Swapna was employed.

She also says that on account of the harassment by the police meted out to the staff of HRDS in the name of investigation, HRDS has terminated her service.

Earlier, the High Court had closed Swapna's bail application after recording the submission of the prosecution that the offence alleged are all bailable offences.

A Court in Ernakulam had recently granted anticipatory bail to Swapna's lawyer, Krishna Raj, in an offence registered for a Facebook post. The Court had said that the Facebook post was prima facie a criticism of the state.