ED raids on Mammootty, Dulquer: BJP’s Suresh Gopi wonders ‘if it was a bid to bury Sabarimala gold issue’

He was referring to the Enforcement Directorate’s raids on Malayalam film stars Mammootty, his son Dulquer Salmaan and Prithviraj Sukumaran in connection with an alleged luxury car smuggling racket.

The raids were part of similar actions across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Significantly, the ED operates under the Central Ministry of Finance.

After his remarks kicked up a row, Gopi reiterated his comment, but blamed the media. “When the looting (gold from Sabarimala) happens at one side and when the issue spreads like flames, film personalities are…don’t know in which issue they were involved, that they will say. But by making it news, TV channels are trying to shield the state government and the theft,” he said.

The raids were part of ED’s probe into the smuggling of SUVs from Bhutan to India. The Kerala unit of Gopi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which is leading a vociferous agitation against the state government on the Sabarimala gold scandal, has not so far linked the probe with the temple issue.

However, the Congress – Kerala’s chief Opposition — was quick to seize on the remark. “We congratulate Suresh Gopi, who has realised that the raid on film stars was meant to bury the Sabarimala gold scandal issue. Normally, the ED steps in with raids when the central government is in trouble. However, in this issue, the ED has come out with raids when the Communist Party of India (Marxist) government in Kerala is in trouble,” he says.

He further said: “There is an unholy political nexus. We need not disbelieve the union minister. He has ratified what the Opposition has been saying”.

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