Over 13 people have been arrested in Kerala gold smuggling case.
Investigation into Thiruvananthapuram airport gold smuggling case has entered a crucial phase with customs gearing up to interrogate all those involved even those who give statement about Swapna Suresh and Sarith Nair.
The customs officials decided to examine all phone calls made by accused.
M. Sivasankar was chairman of KSITIl ( Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited ) . Where Swapna was an operation manager, the government had further removed Sivasankar as the state IT secretary .
Even phone calls of Sivasankar will be examined to gather more evidence in this sensational case.
Although there is no direct evidence which indicate the involvement of Sivasankar.
Customs has identified the kingpin in the UAE who was behind the smuggling of gold through diplomatic channels to Kerala, sources said.
Customs sources said the person hailed from Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district and was involved in several other smuggling instances.“He was involved in the smuggling of gold worth Rs 1,200 crore in 2013 to 2015 through Kochi international airport. The gold seized from the diplomatic cargo belonged to that person, who is yet to be named in the FIR. His role came to the fore while questioning the arrested middlemen,” sources said.
Earlier on July 7, at Thiruvananthapuram airport, the Custom officials had seized 30 kg of gold from the diplomatic baggage.The baggage was supposed to have food items . But later Custom officials checked the baggage after getting necessary approval from the ministry of external affairs.
Then the officials took Sarith ( former PRO at UAE consulate) into custody. Further, it was disclosed that Sarith is no longer an employee at the UAE consulate . But still after his dismissal, he continued introducing himself as PRO at UAE consulate.
While Swapna is working at KSIT in their IT department as an operations manager.
The customs officials said that they suspected smuggling syndicate had misused the name of a person who enjoys diplomatic powers.
Another senior Custom official said that the investigation will also look into the role of other employees of consulate.
