Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 27 (IANS): For the first time after Swapna Suresh made serious allegations against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family of smuggling currency and gold, the Chief Minister broke his silence on Monday stating that his public life is clean.

Vijayan though trying to keep his cool intact, lost it when a journalist asked him,, "why he is not taking legal steps against defamatory statements." And pat came the reply and in a stern tone, "that I will decide".

Then he said one should not forget what all allegations surfaced in this case before and the people gave them a clean sweep of 99 seats in the 2021 April assembly polls.

The gold smuggling case first surfaced in July 2020 and it went on with the Congress led opposition leading a huge campaign, but Vijayan led with first registering a resounding victory in the November 2020 local body polls followed up with a stunning victory in the assembly polls.

"See, all these have been dismissed by the people and those behind these allegations felt they could harm Vijayan, the party and the Left, but ours is an open book and the people know about it," said Vijayan.

He went on to say that when these allegations surfaced first, numerous central agencies tried their best and investigated and found nothing.

In reply to the fresh allegation of Swapna that biriyani vessels were transported which contained metals from the residence of UAE Consular General and his residence, he said, "I too am hearing this for the first time," said Vijayan.