Rs 100 crore worth gold smuggled to Kerala for terror funding, Chief Minister under NIA radar
National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the smuggling of gold through the diplomatic channel has found that the racket had brought in 150kg of gold over the past 10 months. The NIA Court on Monday remanded suspects Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair in the agency’s custody till July 21. It has also come to light that the smuggling was undertaken not primarily for jewellers but for terrorist activities, the agency told the court. The accused also forged the UAE Consulate’s emblem to send the consignments.
The NIA on Monday deposed in the court that 9 and 18 kilos of gold were smuggled through the same route right before the seizure of 30 kgs of gold at Thiruvananthapuram airport. It also added that the smuggling started in 2019 and the accused used diplomatic channels to ship the gold to beat the artificial intelligence-based scanners at the airport.
The Customs Department on Tuesday questioned Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar in the gold smuggling case while a minister of state was forced to defend himself after his phone number figured in the call list of key accused Swapna Suresh.
Phone call lists of first accused Sarith Kumar and second accused Swapna Suresh were leaked to the media. In Swapna’s list there were many calls to Sivasankar and higher education minister K T Jaleel.
On July 5 the Customs had seized 30 kg of gold from an air cargo consignment from the UAE to the country’s consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.
Four people have been arrested so far including Swapna Suresh, a former consultant with the state IT department. The CM’s powerful secretary Sivasankar, a senior IAS official, was later removed from the post after reports surfaced that he was allegedly close to Suresh. The case was later handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Responding to the court’s query on how a smuggling incident can be linked funding terror activities, the counsel representing agency argued that illegal activity of such high-level sophistication is a threat to the nation’s financial stability. In contrast to hawala and counterfeit money, a single bid of gold smuggling can garner a huge amount.
According to the NIA, a detailed investigation is required as it concerns the India-UAE bilateral relationship. The UAE has also launched a probe into the matter.
One of the accused—Sandeep Nair deposed in the court that the consignment was addressed to a UAE diplomat named Rashid Al Sheimeili and raised questions over why was the diplomat not being interrogated in this regard.
Kerala Gold Smuggling Case:
On July 5, Customs officials seized 30 kg of gold worth Rs.15 crore at the Thiruvananthapuram Airport from a diplomatic cargo addressed to a person in the UAE Consulate. Sarith Kumar, who worked at the UAE Consulate was arrested in this regard. Reportedly, he told the Customs about the role of Swapna Suresh, an ex-Consulate employee now working as the manager of the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited.
The case took a political turn after photos with Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan surfaced. It has been alleged that Swapna has links with the CM and has been seen with him at parties when she was working at the UAE Consulate. Following the backlash over her appointment, she was sacked by the state government. Moreover, Principal Secretary to CM M Sivasankar has been replaced after his role in hiring Suresh came under the scanner.
