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

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

The Kerala Gold Smuggling scam was first detected when 30 kg gold worth Rs 14.82 crore was being smuggled in a consignment camouflaged as diplomatic baggage and was busted by the Customs in Thiruvananthpuram. The Directorate of Enforcement, National Investigative Agency and Customs department are probing the case. When officials were investigating the gold smuggling case, the 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, then the Principal Secretary to the Kerala Chief Minister, was associated with Swapna Suresh, he was removed from his post amid which the state government faced massive criticism which continues till this day. Swapna, who is a former employee of the UAE consulate in the state capital, is among the four accused booked by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the smuggling of 30 kg of gold through diplomatic baggage which arrived at the 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 managed to land a job as a business development manager with Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) with senior IAS officer and IT secretary M Sivasankar as its chairman. 

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

With inputs from ANI