Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 5 (IANS): Kerala Assembly Speaker's Assistant Private Secretary K. Ayyappan, who was asked to appear before the Customs officials on Tuesday for interrogation in the infamous gold smuggling case, will not be appearing now. This was announced by the office of the Speaker.

'The Assistant private secretary is not appearing before the customs on Tuesday as he said that he had only received a telephone call from the Customs department and there was no written communique,' the press release said.

With the assistant private secretary conveying his unwillingness to attend the questioning on Tuesday, the Customs department will be serving a written notice to him immediately, sources told IANS.

In the infamous gold smuggling case, the key accused Swapna Suresh, who was an official with the UAE consulate at Thiruvananthapuram had revealed before the Customs and Enforcement Directorate that Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan and his office had supported them in the smuggling. The accused Swapna Suresh and her accomplices and co-accused, Sairth P. and Sandeep Nair had also alleged that the Speaker was involved in the dollar smuggling racket as well.

There were also unconfirmed reports in the local media that the Customs department would soon be questioning or rather speaking to Sreeramakrishnan on the gold smuggling racket, and that the Speaker had told the press that there was no such move and that his life was an open book.

The Chief Minister's additional private secretary and the most powerful political post in the Chief Minister's office, C.M. Raveendran was twice called for interrogation before the Enforcement directorate. The Chief Minister's former Principal secretary, M. Shivashankar is already in judicial custody in the gold smuggling case.