Kochi: The phone calls that Swapna made to a specific number while she was in hiding was the main issue during the interrogation of former principal secretary to the chief minister M Sivasankar on Saturday in connection with the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case, according to available information.

There were a number of calls to and from this phone number. The Customs Department suspects that the phone calls were made to Sivasankar.

The Customs had asked Swapna's husband Jayashankar about the calls. In his statement, he said he did not know who she talked to and that he had no information about her dealings.

Many others have also been questioned by the Customs Department. It is learned that there are discrepancies between their statements and the explanations offered by Sivasankar.

According to the Customs, Sivasankar's explanations regarding his relationship with Swapna, the suspicious financial transactions, the mysterious WhatsApp chats with his chartered accountant P Venugopal and the money found in Swapna's locker are not satisfactory.

Sivasankar's WhatsApp chats with the chartered accountant contradict his statement given in July that he had only introduced Swapna to the chartered accountant and knew nothing about their dealings. The Customs considers the chats to be evidence that Sivasankar was aware of Swapna's financial dealings.

The Customs Preventive section questioned Sivasankar for long hours for the second consecutive day on Saturday. The interrogation that started at 11am continued for over 10 hours and into the night. Indications are that he will be questioned again due to inconsistencies in his statements.

While Sivasankar was being questioned, Customs officials simultaneously interrogated Swapna at the Kakkanad district jail, and Sandeep Nair and Sarith at Viyyur high security jail from 10.30am to 5pm on Saturday. Swapna Suresh, Sandeep Nair and Sarith are the three main accused in the Trivandrum Airport gold smuggling case.

The Customs Department had prepared 62 main questions and 40 related questions to find out if Sivasankar was directly involved in the gold smuggling. The Customs teams compared the statements given to the questions by Sivasankar with those made by the three accused to proceed with the interrogations.

The teams that did the questioning exchanged among themselves the information obtained from all the three places.

Swapna, Sarith and Sandeep were questioned on the basis of the statements given by Sivasankar on Friday during his 11-hour questioning. Sivasankar was earlier questioned by the department on July 14 and 15.

Swapna's request for statement copy not valid: Customs

The petition filed by Swapna Suresh seeking a copy of her own statements did not have legal or material validity, the Customs Department argued before the High Court.

As per the Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act, making available to an accused the statements given during an investigation is prohibited. The Supreme Court has also pointed this out in many cases, it said.

The department argued that no accused has the legal right to receive a copy of the papers that are part of an investigation.

If a copy is provided, it could reach the bigwigs who are suspected of being involved in the crime. Swapna's demand is not in public interest, the Customs Department argued.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has reiterated that he did not have any knowledge of Swapna's appointment at Space Park.

"I have told earlier also that I did not know about Swapna’s appointment," he said. Such appointments usually do not require the approval of the Chief Minister. Things are quite obvious from her own statement. She did not categorically state that he knew of her appointment, Vijayan said.

"According to her, she was told that I would be informed about the appointment. You can't dismiss that part. On the basis of the assurance she got, she probably thought I knew about her appointment," he said. "I did not know about it."