Thiruvananthapuram: Gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh and gang had trafficked contraband in diplomatic baggage via Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports too from 2018, the probe team has found.
The inter-state links of the gold smuggling gang are also under the scanner. The probe officers have received tip-off that some parcels, which arrived in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, were transported to Kerala via road and these contained gold.
The probe officers suspect that Swapna was part of a gold smuggling racket that had links across south India.
A multi-agency probe was initiated after the Customs seized 30kg gold from a diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested Swapna Suresh from Bengaluru last month.
Hyderabad and Bengaluru fall under the ambit of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram. Initially, parcels were brought to Hyderabad in connection with the Consulate construction. Then Swapna and gang allegedly smuggled in other parcels under this pretext and these were then transported to Kerala.
Swapna began to wield political clout in Bengaluru from 2018. The parcels from Bengaluru that were transported via the road were reportedly taken to certain centres in Malappuram and Thiruvananthapuram.
The CCTV images at the houses of some of the accused, who were arrested from Kozhikode, were found to be destroyed on those days when smuggling was carried out. The NIA has checked these as well. These images were retrieved, providing crucial leads to the probe team.
Swapna had also reportedly sourced dollars from certain gangs in Thiruvananthapuram city. Though the NIA had questioned them initially and let off, the officers plan to summon them for questioning again.
Swapna’s deposits in cooperative bank
The NIA and Enforcement Directorate have instructed to freeze the Rs 24.5 lakh that Swapna had deposited at the Poovar cooperative bank in Thiruvananthapuram. Another accused P S Sarith too had deposits of Rs 1.96 lakh in the same bank. Sarith had also taken a loan of Rs 1 lakh from the bank.
Swapna opened an account at the cooperative bank in February 2019. From then on, she had deposited money at various intervals. She last made a deposit of Rs 7.5 lakh in February 2020.
