Swapna Suresh, the former liaison officer at the Thiruvananthapuram office of the UAE Consulate has “dared” Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to deny her earlier statements that she had met him personally at his official residence Cliff House in the capital city on many occasions.
“I have met him for one-to-one meeting on a number of occasions in my capacity as the liaison officer of the UAE Consulate. I have met him at the Chief Minister’s Office too many times for personal discussions,” Swapna told The Pioneer on Wednesday. She said the ED and the Customs have all the details of the meetings she had with Vijayan at the latter’s residence and office.
What provoked her to come out in the open challenging the CM was the latter’s statement in the Assembly that he does not know who Swapna was and he has not met her personally.
Swapna is one of the prime accused in the gold smuggling through diplomatic channel of Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in 2019. She was arrested by the NIA from a hideout in Bangalore within days of the seizure of the gold by the intelligence wing of the Customs Department.
The charge against her is that she played a key role in facilitating the smuggling of the yellow metal through diplomatic channel with the active cooperation of the top officials in the Consulate General.