Kerala HC denies anticipatory bail plea of gold smuggling accused Swapna, Sarith

The Kerala High Court, on Thursday, June 9, denied the anticipatory bail petition moved by Swapna Suresh and PS Sarith, who are accused in the Kerala gold smuggling case. The duo had earlier in the day approached the High Court seeking pre-arrest bail after a complaint was filed by MLA and former minister KT Jaleel, alleging a conspiracy behind the fresh allegations by Swapna against him, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family in the gold smuggling case.

Kerala High Court Judge Justice Viju Abraham dismissed the anticipatory bail plea saying that the sections that Swapna was booked under — 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot) of IPC —  are were both bailable offences and Sarith (who is the second petitioner), is not even an accused in the case.

Meanwhile, State Police Chief Anil Kant has constituted a 12-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Crime Branch SP S Madhusoodanan and has directed it to expedite the probe in the case and file a report fortnightly.  Besides the Crime Branch SP, the SIT comprises one ACP, 9 DySPs and one Inspector, official sources told PTI. They added that the probe would be conducted under the supervision of Crime Branch ADGP Shaik Darvesh Saheb.

On Tuesday, Swapna met mediapersons and said that she gave a statement under Section 164 of the CrPC in which she named Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his wife Kamala Vijayan, his daughter Veena Vijayan, as well as former state Chief Secretary Nalini Netto, Additional Private Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister CM Raveendran and former Kerala Education Minister and current legislator KT Jaleel, in relation to the gold smuggling case. On Wednesday, Jaleel filed a complaint alleging conspiracy behind Swapna’s statement and a case was registered against Swapna and former MLA PC George. Jaleel, in his complaint, alleged that PC George and Swapna had conspired together before she spoke to the media about her new revelations.

Swapna and Sarith’s bail petition was filed in this context, and Swapna, in the bail petition, had contended that “interacting with the media and sharing some information contained in her statement given before a court of law will not qualify to be a provocation with intent to cause riot and does not fall under section 153 of IPC.”

Further, the two accused also alleged that they were threatened by a person named Shaji Kiran on Wednesday, who asked Swapna to retract her statement. Shaji had also allegedly demanded Swapna to record an “audio/video stating that the facts contained in the statement given under Section 164 CrPC are false,” before 10 am on June 9.

Hours after the plea was filed in the High Court, Shaji Kiran had come on a TV channel and claimed that Suresh was his friend and he did not pressurise her to withdraw the 164 statement.

Kiran had claimed that he was called to her office by Suresh on Wednesday and while there he had only asked why she made the revelations now and whether she was aware of the problems she would have to face as a result of the same.

He had also categorically denied having been sent there to settle the issue and said even Suresh might not know such things have been stated in her plea.

After her revelations before the media, subsequent to recording her Section 164 statement, Vijayan had issued a statement dismissing Suresh's claims and allegations as "baseless".

Suresh, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here, was taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with another accused Sandeep Nair from Bengaluru on July 11, 2020.

The NIA, Enforcement Directorate (ED), and Customs conducted separate probes into the racket that was busted with the seizure of gold worth Rs 15 crore from the diplomatic baggage of the UAE Consulate at Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 5, 2020.

Several people, including M Sivasankar and another ex-employee of the UAE Consulate here, Sarith, were arrested in connection with the case.

(With inputs from PTI)