Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 29 (IANS): Undeterred by severe criticism from various Union Ministers after Kerala filed two cases against Enforcement Directorate officials and then announced a judicial probe, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stepped up his tirade against the central agency on Monday as a third case was registered by the Crime Branch.

Vijayan on Friday decided to order a judicial probe against the Enforcement Directorate following a complaint by two women Kerala Police officials that they heard ED officers allegedly putting pressure on gold smuggling case prime accused Swapna Suresh and asking her loaded questions so as to implicate Vijayan.

Ahead of the announcement of the judicial probe, the Crime Branch had registered two cases against the ED.

On Monday, the Crime Branch registered another case based on the statement of Sandeep Nair, an accused in the gold smuggling case, that he was pressured by ED officials to name Vijayan.

While the previous two cases were registered at Kochi, the new case was registered at Alappuzha.

The move comes a few days after the ED officials approached the Kerala High Court to quash the FIR registered against them and sought a CBI probe into the issue.

With days left to the April 6 Assembly polls, practically every Union Minister arriving for election campaigning has slammed Vijayan for his actions.