Sunday 26 july 2020

Gold smuggling case involving UAE Consulate Staff at Thiruvananthapuram turned murkier on Saturday with Swapna Suresh, the kingpin and K T Ramees, her associate , telling the investigating agencies that the higher ups in the Consulate were part of the smuggling operation.

“The UAE Consul General and the Attaché were part of the smuggling operations using diplomatic channel. For each consignment of gold smuggled into India, they were paid $1,500/ each,” Swapna and Ramees reportedly told the Customs officers during the interrogation.

This statement finds mention in the affidavit submitted by the Customs in the special court in Kochi which is expected to hear the bail applications filed by the duo on Monday.

The Consul General and the Attaché are not in India. While the Consul General left the country immediately after the covid-19 broke out, the attaché reportedly fled after the smuggling operation was busted by the Customs and the arrest of Swapna and her associates.

The Customs and NIA teams in their raids seized many incriminating documents linking Swapna to gold smuggling. A raid on her bank lockers yielded 1 kg gold and cash of Rs one crore. Though she had said that it was a marriage gift from a Sheikh in the UAE who was her father’s employer, the investigating agencies are not fully convinced with her explanation.

Besides the officials in the consulate, the smuggling cartel consisting of Swapna, Sarith and Sandeep Nair had links with many bigwigs in politics and bureaucracy, said sources in the investigating agencies privy to the interrogation.

Meanwhile, the NIA team in its raids and probes had seized digital records which prove the complicity of M Sivsankar, the suspended former principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The NIA has summoned Sivsankar for another round of questioning to their Kochi office on Monday.

K Ramkumar, senior lawyer, Kerala High Court, who has been commissioned by the Customs Department told The Pioneer that evidences collected till date have made it a water tight case and the role of the accused have been established beyond any doubt. “Please remember that three agencies are probing the case. There is no way out for the accused,” said the septuagenarian lawyer.

The ruling Left Democratic Front which has scheduled its meeting for Tuesday cancelled the same on Saturday siting the Covid-19 pandemic. But political Kerala is agog with rumors that the meeting was postponed because the NIA’s decision to interrogate Sivsankar on Monday. If Sivsankar is arrested by the NIA on Moday, it would be a major embarrassment to the CPI(M), according to political commentators.