Kochi: Swapna Suresh, the main accused in the July 5 gold smuggling case, had revealed that diplomatic officials at the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram were involved in illegal businesses, according to the statement given by former Principal Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister M Sivasankar to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
'Consul is eating mangoes' was the code used by the consulate employees to refer to such transactions, he reportedly said.
Many were in the business of selling cosmetics that came in diplomatic parcels to make a profit.
According to Sivasankar, he did not know the truth about the attempts of the accused, including Swapna, to put the blame for gold smuggling on the Consulate's officials.
He admitted that Swapna had sought his help in getting some diplomatic parcels from the UAE to the consulate, that were detained by the Customs on July 1, released. Swapna had wanted him to call the assistant commissioner of Customs and tell him to release the parcels. At that time, he had no knowledge about her gold smuggling activities, Sivasankar said in his statement.
CM was not aware of Swapna's Space Park appointment: Sivasankar
Meanwhile, Sivasankar has dismissed Swapna Suresh's statement that she got the job in the Space Park project overseen by the Kerala IT department with the knowledge of the chief minister.
In his statement, Sivasankar said that even the government secretary concerned is rarely aware of such short-term contract appointments.
He said that after discussing the Life Mission project with the UAE-based Red Crescent, he had informed the chief minister about its proposals. The chief minister had accepted the proposal that funds provided by Red Crescent could be used to build houses for the victims of the floods in 2018, Sivasankar told the ED.
Did not ask CA to open joint locker with Swapna
Sivasankar has also told the ED that he had asked his chartered accountant, who is also a close friend, to help Swapna with financial matters in a legal manner and that he did not instruct him to open a joint bank locker with her to keep money.
Swapna had resigned from the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram in August 2019. According to Sivasankar, Swpna told him that the Consul General did not want his successor to know about his suspicious financial dealings through her when he was replaced and that is why she was asked to leave. She also said that she was paid money for this, Sivasankar told the ED.
It was to keep this money that he had introduced her to his chartered accountant, Sivasankar said.
He said he had advised Swapna to apply for a role in Space Park after seeing her work at the UAE Consulate. He was shocked to learn later that her degree certificate was fake and that she was connected to gold smuggling gangs, he said.
He also said that he does not remember the WhatsApp messages he had sent to his chartered accountant a year-and-a-half ago and that he cannot talk about them without checking the messages in the phone.
Sivasankar may be discharged today
The health condition of Sivasankar, who is in the ortho ICU of the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College with a disc prolapse, is satisfactory, officials at the hospital said.
He may be discharged from the hospital on Monday after undergoing an MRI examination and a review by the neurosurgery department. The medical board will meet around 3 pm to take a decision.
The CRPF contacted the hospital superintendent to provide security to Sivasankar at the request of the Customs Department. It was, however, told that would be difficult as it was a hospital for providing COVID treatment.
