Kochi: The ongoing probe into the diplomatic gold smuggling case is yet to crack the full extent of the operations of the racket. It seems contraband landed not just at the airport but even at seaport and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's former principal secretary M Sivasankar likely intervened in the Customs clearing desk of the Cochin Port.
Both Customs and Enforcement Directorate suspect the racket smuggled through the seaport too as it has been revealed that Swapna Suresh who executed its operations had contacted Sivasankar in order to intervene at the Customs office after a diplomatic parcel purportedly containing drinking water bottles arrived at the Cochin Port.
The probe is now on into this aspect too after a senior Customs official gave a statement that Sivasankar had directly contacted him to get the cargo which had arrived in Kochi on April 2 released without any checking. Following Sivasankar's intervention, the Customs avoided the checking and released the cargo.
Swapna, who is now in jail, had reportedly sent a message to Sivasankar stating that she would lose her job at the UAE Consulate if the Customs at the Cochin Port were to examine the diplomatic parcel of water bottles intended for the consignee in Thiruvananthapuram.
The investigators are yet to decipher what was likely concealed in the parcel. The ED is planning to question the accused again after recording the statement of a senior Customs official who disclosed the incident.
The ED views this incident as a solid proof of Sivasankar regularly contacting Customs officials at the behest of Swapna to get diplomatic parcels released.
As reported earlier Sivasankar had contacted the Customs wing at the Trivandrum International Airport as the agency seized a diplomatic parcel containing gold in early July. This bust eventually led to the ongoing probes into the smuggling of gold, foreign currency and money laundering. Sivasankar and Swapna and several of their associates were subsequently arrested.
The racket benefitted from Swapna's association with the UAE Consulate in the Kerala capital and her proximity to the bureaucrat.
