Kochi: A letter addressed to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) helped to unearth the racket behind the diplomatic channel gold smuggling in Kerala.
The 2020 January letter, purportedly signed by a former senior official of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), had hinted that two DRI officials, who returned to the parent department after serving the Customs, were privy to the smuggling.
The writer also said meeting him personally for more information would endanger his life.
The PMO forwarded the letter to the central intelligence agency.
Based on the letter, Customs Preventive Commissioner Sumit Kumar had ordered a probe and 30 kilograms of gold found in a diplomatic baggage to the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram were seized in late June. However, the racket had by then smuggled in 153 kilograms of gold in 21 instalments.
P S Sarith, the prime accused in the case, had deposed that M Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, had warned of the Intelligence Bureau's report on the gold smuggling in April 2020.
Sivasankar shared the information during the funeral rites of co-accused Swapna Suresh's father, Sarith reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Kerala Police, too, got information about a "deal woman", after the police in Kochi arrested a gang for alleged extortion and attempts to make an actress a carrier in the smuggling racket. It was later revealed that Swapna was the "deal woman."
Twist in the tale
Central intelligence sleuths met the DRI official, who had signed the letter to the PMO three months after the gold was seized. The official, leading a retired life in Kochi, denied sending such a letter. It is now suspected that someone else had used the official's credibility to blow the lid off smuggling.
Speaker summoned again
The preventive wing of the Customs has served another notice on Kerala Legislative Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, summoning him to the department's Commissionerate in Kochi at 8 am on April 11.
Though the Speaker was summoned earlier, he replied in the negative citing busy schedule ahead of the April 6 election to the State Assembly.
