Thiruvananthapuram: The prompt action of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the gold smuggling case, which has shaken Kerala, has taken many by surprise. They had expected the agency to wait for a verdict on the anticipatory bail application that Swapna Suresh, the second accused in the case, has filed in the Kerala high court before considering its next course of action.
But the NIA decided to move swiftly after it was handed over the gold smuggling case on Thursday, to prevent the accused from destroying evidence. The arrest of Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair from Bengaluru and the raids at the flat of former IT secretary M Sivasankar came as a result of this decision.
It had, at a meeting held in Kochi on Friday, decided to collect as much evidence as possible and as fast as possible.
Swapna and Sandeep were, in fact, arrested when the investigating officer in the case, DySP Radhakrishnan Pillai, was in Chennai to file the charge sheet in the Kaliyikkavilai shooting case. The NIA didn't wait for his presence because it had a directive from Delhi to not waste time in consultations.
Moreover, the NIA took the accused into custody even though the Kerala DGP had just appointed a team under Kochi deputy commissioner of police Poonkuzhali to nab them.
The question now is how did Swapna and Sandeep manage to leave Thiruvananthapuram when it was under triple lockdown to fight COVID-19 and how did they get an inter-state pass to reach Bengaluru.
Since the NIA team in Kochi could not move fast enough to other districts, it has sought the help of Customs officials for the time being in its investigations. The Customs raided the flat of former IT secretary M Sivasankar as part of this request.
The investigating agency will collect the CCTV footage of the secretariat and the Assembly in the coming days. It has experts who can recover the footage even if it is destroyed.
When a case being investigated by the state police is handed over to the NIA, transferring the documents and case diary take time, delaying the start of the investigation by the national agency. But, in the gold smuggling case, the NIA could act fast because the case was transferred from another central agency, the Customs Department.
Many expected the NIA to follow the precedent set by most law enforcement agencies that refrain from arresting an accused when an anticipatory bail application is pending in court. The NIA, however, went ahead and arrested Swapna and Sandeep because it is certain that the accused will not be granted anticipatory bail as they have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The high court has said it will hear the petition on Tuesday, when it will be informed that the accused have been arrested.
