Kochi: The Thiruvananthapuram-based chartered accountant Venugopal has told investigators that he had to give in to the orders of former principal secretary to the chief minister M Sivasankar and Swapna Suresh in opening and maintaining the bank locker that was used for gold smuggling activities.
When he signed to open the joint locker with Swapna as per the direction of Sivasankar, he knew he would be legally liable for its contents but he could not do anything about it, he said.
Venugopal has, in his statements, said that he has not been told about the source of the money and gold kept in the locker, Enforcement Directorate (ED) assistant director P Radhakrishnan and special prosecutor TA Unnikrishnan told the court.
In her statements to the ED, Swapna has said that when the UAE Consul General gifted her Rs 1 crore from the commission received from the Life Mission project, she initially wanted to deposit it in a bank, but the chartered accountant advised her to keep it in the locker. This needs further investigation, the ED told the court.
Remand extended
The accused in the case should not be granted bail given the stage at which the investigations into the black money transactions involved in the gold smuggling racket is, the ED told the court in its report submitted along with the application for extending the remand period of Swapna, P S Sarith and Sandeep Nair. The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court extended their remand till September 9.
The ED has recorded the statement of P V Vinod, director of Ernakulam-based Sane Ventures, one of the contractors in the Life Mission project. Vinod said Swapna was not paid any commission. However, in his statement, the managing partner of the company’s sister concern Unitac has said that a commission of Rs 4.25 crore was paid to win the contract.
A multi-agency probe was initiated after the Customs seized 30kg of gold from a diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram last month. The Home Ministry had directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the probe. Two of the accused Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair were nabbed from Bengaluru by the NIA, while another accused P S Sarith was arrested by the Customs.
The case also led to the suspension of senior IAS officer M Sivasankar after allegations about his links to Swapna surfaced.
