In Kerala gold smuggling case, court extends remand of Swapna & other accused till Feb 2

In high-profile Kerala gold smuggling case, ecomic offenses court has extended remand of accused till February 2. Kerala Chief Minister's ex-Principal Secretary M Sivasankar, Swapna Suresh, Sarith PS, Sandeep Nair, Ramees KT, Jalaland Muhamm Shafi are accused in question. case is associated with alleged gold smuggling in state through diplomatic channels. In Dollar smuggling case, court extended remand of Swapna Suresh and Sarith PS till February 2. 

Kerala Gold Smuggling scam was first detected when 30 kg gold worth Rs 14.82 crore was being smuggled in a consignment camoufld as diplomatic bagg and was busted by  Customs in Thiruvananthpuram. Directorate of Enforcement, National Investigative ncy and Customs department are probing case. When officials were investigating gold smuggling case, dollar smuggling case also came to light. In August, a UAE Consulate employee and Egyptian national Khalid Ali Shoukry were caught allegedly smuggling $1.9 lakh through Thiruvananthapuram airport.

As it emerged last year that M Sivasankar, n Principal Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister, was associated with Swapna Suresh, he was removed from his post amid which state government faced massive criticism which continues till this day. Swapna, who is a former employee of UAE consulate in state capital, is among four accused booked by National Investigation ncy (NIA) in smuggling of 30 kg of gold through diplomatic bagg which arrived at Thiruvanathapuram International airport on July 5. 

Suresh allegedly used to move in social, bureaucratic and political circles, at times even projecting herself as a diplomat. She mand to land a job as a business development manr with Kerala State Information Techlogy Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) with senior IAS officer and IT secretary M Sivasankar as its chairman. 

Last year, ED h also initiated investigation in gold smuggling case on basis of an FIR and chargesheet filed by CBI and Anti Corruption Bureau, Cochin against C Mhavan, a former deputy commissioner of customs, P P Sunil Kumar, Faiz T K, Ashraf Kallunkal, Subair Y M and Abdul Rahim and ors.

With inputs from ANI