Kerala Gold Smuggling Case: Swapna Suresh, Sarith PS, Sandeep Nair remanded till Aug 21

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Friday sent Sarith PS, Swapna Suresh, and Sandeep Nair, prime accused in the high-profile Kerala gold smuggling case, to judicial custody till August 21.

Suresh said in the court that she had suffered mental torture in custody and had given a statement to customs officials due to this. The court will consider the bail petitions of Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair on August 5.

Sarith PS, who was in the custody of the NIA so far, was on Thursday taken to a flat near the Kerala Secretariat for evidence collection. According to the NIA probe, the three prime accused in the matter had met and hatched the plan to commit the crime at the flat near the Secretariat.

The NIA had on July 18 taken the other two accused in the matter -- Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair -- to various locations in Thiruvananthapuram for evidence collection, including their residences and the flat near the Secretariat. The investigation had found that the accused had managed to book the flat with the help of M Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister's Office.

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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 Suresh 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. On July 16, Vijayan announced that the suspension of his former Principal Secretary M Sivasankar pending the departmental inquiry. It was reportedly found that he had violated the All-India Services Conduct rules due to his connections with the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling accused. 

The NIA had taken over the case after Centre's nod on July 9. The investigative agency will probe whether the gold smuggling was linked to activities detrimental to national security. The agency has slapped various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 against Sarith Kumar, Swapna Suresh, Fazil Fareed, Sandeep Nair in the case. The agency has also requested Interpol to issue a blue corner notice against Faisal Fareed, another accused in the high-profile case. Earlier, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Fareed by a special NIA court in Kochi.

(With ANI inputs)

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