Swapna Suresh.
A former woman employee of the UAE consulate, key suspect in the gold smuggling bid through diplomatic baggage, has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the NIA informed the Kerala High Court.
Making the submission while opposing the anticipatory bail application of Swapna Suresh, who is on the run, the counsel for the Centre and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said she had criminal antecedents and that she was ‘involved’ in arranging diplomatic papers for the smuggling of the gold seized by the Customs recently.
Custodial interrogation of the woman was required to ascertain her role, the counsel for the NIA, which has been asked by the Centre on Thursday to probe the smuggling bid through Thiruvananthapuram international airport, said.
After hearing the submissions, Justice Ashok Menon adjourned till next Tuesday the plea of Suresh. The judge declined the prayer of the petitioner seeking interim protection against arrest.
Kerala gold smuggling explained| Diplomatic cargo, an absconding woman and a consulate under scanner
Earlier, Suresh had stated that she worked with the consulate “on request basis” and had intervened to get the cargo cleared at the behest of Acting Consul-General Rashid Khamis Al Sheimeili.
Applying for anticipatory bail in the high court on Thursday, Suresh said the cargo was addressed to Rashid Khamis Al Sheimeili and it was on his direction that she intervened with Customs regarding delay in getting the cargo released. Suresh, who claimed she had resigned as executive secretary at the Consulate in September 2019, said “it was as per discharging the official duty that she contacted the Customs”. The bail application mentioned that the Consul General returned to UAE in April and Rashid Khamis Al Sheimeili was subsequently appointed Acting Consul-General.
In her bail application, Suresh said she had not committed any offence as alleged and was falsely implicated as the key accused in the matter. She has been absconding since Sunday, when Customs seized the gold from the diplomatic cargo at Thiruvananthapuram airport.
After a case of 30 kilogram of gold smuggling from a diplomatic cargo addressed to the UAE Consulate-General Office in Thiruvananthapuram came to light last week, Swapna Suresh, a former executive secretary at the UAE Consulate-General’s office emerged as a prime suspect for her role in forging Consulate documents to illicitly enjoy diplomatic immunity for gold smuggled from the Gulf.
Suresh went into hiding a day before the Customs decided to open the diplomatic cargo. She is now under scrutiny.
Suresh’s alleged role in the gold smuggling racket and her connections to former principal secretary M Sivasankar, under whom she worked as a contract staff with the state government’s flagship Space Park project, has now snowballed into a major controversy in Kerala.
(With inputs from ENS)