Kochi: The five-month-old probe into the diplomatic gold smuggling case and related cases are at a critical juncture as the accused have started to spill the beans not just on the operations of the racket, but also about the characters and ultimate beneficiaries of the ill-gotten wealth. Investigators have also likely achieved a major breakthrough over the graft charges related to the Life Mission Project as a key accused owned up about the payment of Rs 1 crore as kickback to Kerala Chief Minister's former aide M Sivasankar.
In the last round of interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate, Swapna Suresh, one of the prime accused in the smuggling case, has claimed that Rs 1 crore found by the sleuths in her bank locker was indeed the commission paid to Sivasankar, the former principal secretary to the Kerala chief minister, in return for awarding the building contract of the Life Mission Project.
The ED, which is probing the money laundering angle of the gold smuggling case, made the crucial deposition in an affidavit filed before a special court set up under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kochi. It sought Sivasankar's custody for one more day in the wake of Swapna's ongoing interrogation. The court, in response, allowed the ED to carry out custodial grilling of Sivasankar for one more day.
According to the ED affidavit, the amount handed over to Swapna by UAE Consulate official Khalid Ali Shoukri, the Egyptian national who was the head of its finance department, was supposed to be a commission for Sivasankar for the Life Mission Project. The affidavit also claims that Sivasankar had leaked the tender details of the Project to Swapna prior to the bidding process.
Out of the 36 building projects, the deals for 26 were received by two companies. The ED suspects that Swapna had played a decisive role in this with likely help from government authorites.
(The aim of the Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) Mission of the Kerala government is to provide housing for the poor and the landless. The mission had entered into an MoU with the Red Crescent Authority of the UAE for Rs 20 crore assistance for a LIFE Mission project in Wadakkanchery — Rs 14.5 crore for a housing complex and Rs 5.5 crore for a hospital attached to the complex. Red Crescent then signed a contract with Unitac for construction of the apartments. It is believed Swapna engaged the UAE agency by exercising her influence with its consulate.)
How Swapna cracked up
Swapna made certain crucial revelations about gold smuggling when ED officials confronted her with some decisive WhatsApp messages that were exchanged between her and Sivasankar. She said Sivasankar was aware that during the first phase of the smuggling electronic gadgets would be brought in through diplomatic baggage.
Sivasankar also knew that the contract for the Life Mission project was awarded to Unitac builders only after payment of a hefty commission, Swapna told ED.
In her statement, Swapna also revealed that Sivasankar was keen on making Unitac CEO Santosh Eapen a part of K-FON and Life Mission projects.
The ED report submitted before the court also contains the names of people close to Sivasankar as revealed by Swapna.
'Sivasankar knew about gold smuggling'
In a major disclosure with likely serious ramifications, Swapna also claimed Kerala chief minister's then principal secretary M Sivasankar was aware of the operations of the racket.
Swapna told interrogators that apart from Sivasankar a few others in the chief minister's office were also aware of the gold smuggling racket. This is reportedly for the first time Swapna has given a statement of this nature.
With the latest disclosures, the probe by the central agency is likely to be extended to more persons in the coming days.
The Customs had unearthed the gold smuggling case in July. PS Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, was initially arrested over his alleged bid to help smuggle 30 kg gold in diplomatic baggage. Soon, the role of Swapna and her links to Sivasankar too came to light and both were arrested in the course of the probe.
Sivasankar, arrested by the agency on October 28, was earlier sent to seven-day custody of the ED. Last week, the court had extended by six more days the custody of Sivasankar to probe his communications with Swapna.
The ED, probing the money trail in the gold smuggling case, has alleged multiple offences against Sivasankar.
The National Investigation Agency, Customs and the ED are conducting separate investigations into the seizure of gold worth nearly Rs 15 crore from a diplomatic baggage of UAE Consulate at Thiruvananthapuram airport.
