Sivasankar met me and told to open bank locker with Swapna, says chartered accountant

Thiruvananthapuram: Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the Trivandrum gold smuggling case, and M Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, had met the bureaucrat's chartered accountant and asked him to open a joint bank locker with Swapna.

This was disclosed by the chartered accountant in his statements to the Enforcement Directorate and the Customs Department.

In the statement he claimed that the duo arrived at his office in Shantinagar near the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. After introducing the accountant to Swapna, Sivasankar talked at length about opening the locker and money. Sivasankar said the money for the locker be transferred from his bank. Accordingly, he paid the locker fees, the chartered accountant said.

The accountant said that the key to the locker was in his hand for some time and then Swapna took it from him.

The Enforcement Directorate is investigating if there was money laundering in connection with the gold smuggling racket. The Customs Department is trying to get more details about the smuggling of gold in diplomatic baggage through the Trivandrum International Airport after it foiled an attempt on July 5.

Swapna is the second accused in the Trivandrum airport case. She is said to have had close links with Sivasankar, who was also the principal secretary for IT in the Kerala government. He was suspended after his ties to Swapna were exposed.

A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had examined a locker that Swapna had opened in another bank at the Althara Junction in Thiruvananthapuram. But it did not find anything in that locker.

It was also found that the gold had been smuggled through Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports. Crores of rupees were deposited in a parallel bank account opened in the name of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram supposedly to be given to charitable organisations. About Rs 140 crore went through this account.

It is learned that the money Swapna made through gold smuggling was invested in various places with the knowledge of P S Sarith Kumar, the first accused in the Trivandrum gold smuggling case. It is learned that Sarith had travelled to some European countries after visiting Dubai. It is being investigated if Swapna had made any investments in these countries.

Protocol officer questioned

After the NIA and Customs, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also sought an explanation from the Protocol Officer.

The ED requested details of the parcels received in diplomatic baggage during the last two years and the documents provided by the protocol officer for tax deduction. The Ministry of External Affairs is also investigating the diplomatic parcels.

Mystery business partners

The two lockers belonging to Swapna were taken to keep black money for two of her business partners, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating money laundering in connection with the smuggling racket, said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), inquiring into the alleged terror links of the gold smuggling operations, found Rs 36.5 lakh in one locker and Rs 64 lakh in the other.

The ED believes Swapna had kept the amount for two persons whose names have not yet cropped up before the investigating agencies in connection with the case.

According to Swapna, she got the money as commission from Unitac for winning the contract to build houses for the UAE-based Red Crescent under the Life Mission project. However, the amount was neither received as commission nor gifted by the UAE Consul General, the ED has said.

According to the statements given by the owner of Unitac, the commission was paid to Swapna and her associates Sarith Kumar and Sandeep Nair, who are also accused in the gold smuggling, through a bank account. He also submitted records of the bank transaction to the investigating agency.

However, the probe team does not believe Unitac's statement that it paid Rs 4.25 crore as commission for a Rs 20-crore contract. The ED and Customs Department are examining if Unitac also put money in the gold smuggling operations.

According to the statements recorded by the investigating agencies, Unitac had paid an additional Rs 3.50 crore in dollars and Indian rupees besides the amount transferred through bank. The agencies are trying to find out for whom was the amount paid.