Central agencies just doing their job in Kerala cases: Union Minister

Union Minister V Muraleedharan on Friday hit back at CPI-M State Secretary A Vijayaraghavan for alleging that the ongoing probes by central agencies were aimed at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, asserting that the agencies were just doing their job.

The Minister of State for External Affairs said that no directive was given to anyone to carry out investigations in a particular way.

"If there is a need to probe the role of Vijayan, it will be done. If there is no need, it won't be done," said Muraleedharan, who is the lone BJP leader from Kerala in the Union Cabinet.

Vijayaraghavan had earlier in the day said that it was because of his innocence that Vijayan had sought a probe into the gold smuggling case by any central agency so that truth was out.

"But the central agencies have political bias and are going forward with the intention of targeting Vijayan. We will deal with it politically," said Vijayaraghavan.

The gold smuggling case surfaced on July 5, in which senior IAS official M Sivasankar is among several persons who were arrested.

Vijayan's Assistant Private Secretary CM Ravindran was directed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Friday, but he could not so as he is admitted in hospital.

Both the Congress and the BJP have been demanding the resignation of Vijayan, claiming that he aware of what was happening in his office vis-a-vis persons arrested in the case. - IANS