Premature Retirement Not Enough, ED Officer P Radhakrishnan Must Be Arrested: Sivankutty

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala General Education Minister V. Sivankutty on Friday demanded the immediate arrest of Enforcement Directorate officer P. Radhakrishnan, who had investigated the 2020 diplomatic channel gold smuggling case and was recently sent on premature retirement after serious misconduct was established against him.

Sivankutty said compulsory retirement was not enough in a case involving grave misuse of official authority. He said a criminal case must be registered and a detailed investigation carried out into the officer’s actions.

Radhakrishnan had served as Assistant Director at the ED’s Kochi zonal office when he was entrusted with the gold smuggling probe. Within a week, a case was registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. After the arrest of the main accused—Swapna Suresh, Sarith and Sandeep Nair—the investigation was extended to former principal secretary to the Chief Minister, M. Sivasankar. From that stage, efforts were made to steer the probe towards Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his office.

During the recording of statements from Swapna Suresh while she was in jail, she was allegedly pressured to claim that members of the Chief Minister’s family were involved. Swapna Suresh later disclosed this publicly. Another accused, Sandeep Nair, also said he had faced similar pressure from the ED.

It was Radhakrishnan who submitted ED reports to the court containing fabricated claims, including allegations that gold was smuggled from the Consulate General’s residence to the Chief Minister’s house in biryani containers, hidden inside the Quran and concealed in dates. As protests mounted against what was widely viewed as the political misuse of the ED, a demand was raised to shift the trial to Karnataka. The case was also pushed aggressively in the media through selective briefings. Parallel attempts were made to link the Red Crescent case with the Life Mission housing project, further expanding the allegations without supporting evidence.

Following multiple complaints, the Kerala Legislative Assembly’s Ethics Committee sought an explanation from Radhakrishnan. Allegations of bribery and leaking of confidential information then surfaced, leading to his transfer from Kochi to Chennai. After two years, he was brought back to Kochi. During this period, a vigilance case emerged in which ED officials themselves were named as accused. Radhakrishnan was later transferred to Srinagar, where he was serving as Deputy Director when the Ministry of Finance initiated action against him. His plea before the tribunal seeking cancellation of the transfer was dismissed.

A preliminary inquiry by the Ministry found substance in the allegations, following which compulsory retirement was ordered. The decision was approved by the President, and the official order was issued last week.

Sivankutty said the officer had deliberately created public suspicion by raising baseless allegations and falsely projecting the Chief Minister as an accused in the gold smuggling and Life Mission cases. He said the decision to retire the officer prematurely itself showed the seriousness of the misconduct.

The minister also alleged that the officer may have accumulated large sums of money during his service and said the matter should not end with retirement. “His influence does not end with retirement. When misconduct is clearly established, an FIR must be registered, and he must be arrested and questioned in custody,” Sivankutty said.