Thiruvananthapuram: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is said to have obtained some crucial evidence from the State Protocol Office in its investigation into the gold smuggling case.
The office is a part of the state Secretariat’s General Administration Department (Political), where a fire broke out on Tuesday destroying some files. A preliminary investigation has, however, said that important files have not been lost.
The NIA has found that after Swapna Suresh established her authority at the UAE Consulate, the Protocol Office stopped receiving regular documents from the Consulate regarding diplomatic parcels. This happened after Swapna got P S Sarith appointed as the PRO of the Consulate using her influence.
The PRO has to provide the documents for the Protocol Officer's permission to get diplomatic parcels released after customs clearance. The documents are meant for tax relief.
Parcels that cost less than Rs 20 lakh require the permission of the Protocol Officer, while those costing more than Rs 20 lakh need the permission of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Investigations have revealed that Sarith was appointed after Swapna got the previous PRO removed. After Sarith took over the role of the PRO in July 2017, the Protocol Office did not receive any document seeking approval for release of diplomatic parcels. The smuggling of gold through diplomatic parcels also started after his appointment. His predecessor had sent letters to the Protocol Officer seeking permission for all diplomatic parcels.
These were the records that the NIA had wanted from the Protocol Office. The agency had demanded that the documents the Consulate had submitted to the Protocol Office for tax deduction since 2019 be produced before it. However, the protocol officer told the NIA that the office had not received any document during this period.
The investigation agency then sought the documents that were submitted since the opening of the Consulate in 2016. The examination of these records revealed that Sarith had not sought any permission since he took over as the PRO.
The NIA is now trying to ascertain if documents of the protocol officer were forged after Sarith was appointed at the Consulate or if someone from the office had helped him.
Swapna and another accused Sandeep Nair were arrested from Bengaluru on July 11 by the NIA in a case related to seizure of gold worth nearly Rs 15 crore from a "diplomatic baggage" at the Thiruvananthapuram International airport on July 5. Sarith was arrested earlier. The case also led to the suspension of senior IAS officer M Sivasankar after allegations about his links to Swapna surfaced.
