Kochi: Swapna Suresh, the key accused in the case of gold smuggling through the diplomatic baggage, blamed the Customs for endangering her life by leaking her confidential statement.

The statement mentions a few ‘important persons’ in Kerala who engaged in criminal activities in association with the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.

Swapna said she had made the confidential revelations about the involvement of the Chief Minister, his family, former Minister K T Jaleel, former Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan and CM's principal secretary M Sivasankar in many activities, during the Customs interrogation.

The evidence for the same is in the digital devices — the laptop and the mobile phone — seized by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Customs soon after her arrest in 2020. The Customs had recorded the statement confidentially considering the gravity of the matter revealed therein. But the Customs officials themselves have leaked the information in the statement to those involved, Swapna alleged, in the plea seeking security from the Court.

However, the Central agencies informed the Court that the credibility of Swapna’s allegations after she is out on bail is to be verified. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Customs denied Swapna’s claims that the serious allegations raised at present have already been given as statements to the investigation agencies. The Central agencies said that they would know if there is any related evidence only after examining her fresh statement.

Swapna’s allegations:

Against the CM
The Chief Minister held a closed-room discussion with the Sharjah ruler at the Cliff House to get permission for his daughter to start an IT business abroad. The meeting took place after LuLu group chairman M A Yusuff Ali came out of the room and stood outside.

Following this, the CM held a meeting in person with the Sheikh Fahim, the Sharjah IT Minister and the Sharjah ruler’s son-in-law. This was in the presence of private secretary C M Ravindran, and IAS officers M Sivasankar and Nalini Netto.

Though the CM’s wife had attempted to present gold and diamond jewellery to the Sharjah ruler’s wife, she was discouraged from doing so.

After the Sharjah ruler’s wife expressed displeasure over the CM’s wife’s interventions, the royal family of Sharjah did not give a green signal to the CM’s daughter’s business.

Such discussions were held at the Cliff House without informing or obtaining permission from the External Affairs Ministry.

Against former Minister K T Jaleel
It was K T Jaleel who had a close relationship with the UAE Counsel General. Violating the External Affairs rules, the duo had held many closed-room discussions.

Amid all these, 20 of the 570 cartons which had reached the Consulate as religious books were directed to be moved to the Counsel General’s room.

These 20 cartons were later taken to Jaleel’s official residence in the Consulate’s official vehicle. Though the cartons were of the same size, the weight was different, indicating that the contents were different.

Counsel general said that Jaleel had received similar cartons from other UAE consulates in India too with the help of Madhava Warrier, owner of Mumbai-based Fly Jack Logistics, who is also known to be Jaleel’s benami. Counsel General also informed that Jaleel pulled the strings as the Minister for Higher Education and influenced Calicut University Vice-Chancellor to confer honorary D Lit to Sharjah ruler.

The Chief Minister and the M Sivasankar had discussed with the Counsel General at the Cliff House to include the Sharjah ruler’s Cliff House visit in the itinerary and to shift the programme to confer honorary D Litt to the ruler, which was to be held at Kozhikode, to Thiruvananthapuram.

The permission of the External Affairs Ministry was not sought for these programmes.

Against former Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan.

The then Speaker P Sreeramakrishanan sought to arrange a personal meeting with the Sharjah ruler when the latter had visited Kerala. The arrangement was done for the personal meeting at Leela Hotel in Thiruvananthapuram.

As a follow-up to this, Sreeramakrishnan visited him in Sharjah and demanded free land to start a university in his own capacity.

He was also willing to offer money for the same. He claimed that he owns the Middle East College and that it is being run by his friends Kiran and Lafeer, a native of Ponnani. It was known from Sivasankar that Ramakrishnan intended to develop this college into a University.