The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached fixed deposits along with the cash recovered from the bank lockers totalling to Rs 1.85 crore in Kerala Gold Smuggling Case. Among the attached assets, properties worth Rs 1 crore belongs to IAS officer and former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister of Kerala, M Sivasankar.
The ED had initiated investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of NIA’s FIR filed before the Special Court for NIA cases in Kochi against Sarith P S, Swapna Prabha Suresh, Faisal Fareed and Sandeep Nair under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The Customs Commissionerate (Preventive), Cochin had seized 30 kg gold worth Rs 14.82 crore at Trivandrum International Airport on July 5, 2020.
The seized gold was camouflaged as diplomatic baggage to UAE Consulate, which has immunity from checking at airport as per Vienna convention.
The consignment was to be received by the accused Sarith P.S, who worked in UAE Consulate earlier as Public Relations Officer in complicity with Swapna Prabha Suresh, Sandeep Nair and others.
“During the course of investigation under PMLA, it was revealed that the accused persons namely Sarith P S, Swapna Prabha Suresh, Faisal Fareed and Sandeep Nair indulged in illegal smuggling of gold to India and huge amount of Proceeds of Crime (POC) were generated,” the ED said in a statement.
Identified POC totalling to Rs 1.85 belonging to the accused persons have been provisionally attached under PMLA, it further said.
Accused Sivasankar was arrested by the ED on October 28 and is presently undergoing judicial custody. Earlier a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) was filed in the case.