A new modus operandi to smuggle in gold to India has been busted at Thiruvananthapuram airport on Sunday with the Customs Department seizing 30 Kg of the yellow metal valued at Rs 15 crore in the local market.
The gold, concealed in the form of pipes, rods and faucets was seized from a diplomatic consignment addressed to the Consular General of the United Arab Emirates in the city. By Monday, the incident snowballed into a major scam with the name of a senior IAS official attached to Chief Minister’s Office finding mention in reports associated with the smuggling.
The Customs Department took into custody Sarith, a former staff of the UAE Consulate Office and he was taken to Kochi for interrogation. It is reported that one of the principal secretaries working in the CMO rang up the Customs officials to make them hush up the case.
Sarith, who was dismissed from service by the Consulate long back was questioned by officials of Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) at the Kochi office of the Customs Department. Name of a former lady staff who worked with the consulate is also being mentioned as a possible associate in this smuggling operation.
The consignment which arrived at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport sometime last week was kept pending customs clearance. Usually, diplomatic consignments are not subjected to Customs scrutiny as the invoices and other documents furnished by the office of the Consulate General is taken at face value and the material cleared without any hassle. But this time, the Customs officials got a tip off and thus the baggage was stored in the air cargo complex for clearance.
The consignment was opened on Sunday in the presence of the Consular staff but the latter feigned ignorance about the contents in the package. Customs officials are of the view that this type of smuggling making use of the diplomatic goodwill would not have taken place without the knowledge of the higher-ups and the consular staff.
“This kind of consignments used to come quite regularly to the airport. There were much bigger consignments too in the recent past,” said a senior airport official who is privy to the happenings in airport cargo complex.
Gulf News, a popular daily, has quoted UAE Ambassador to India, Dr. Ahmad Abdul Rahman Al Banna as saying: “We don’t know anything about it. Anyone sending anything to the consulate doesn’t mean that it is ours. It is nonsense [to think like that].”
By Monday evening the Government of Kerala dismissed the service of Swapna Suresh from its IT Department . She has been working as a liaison officer in one of the units under the IT Department. Swapna is reportedly the kingpin of the entire operation. She was earlier working as an executive assistant in the Consulate Office from where she was sacked for improper conduct, according to persons who are close to her.
K surendran, the young president of Kerala BJP, alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and IT secretary M Sivsankar were trying to save Swapna Suresh from the case. “She is an accused in many criminal cases and was fired by the UAE Consulate General for misconduct. How come such a person was appointed in the Chief Minister’s Office despite the Special Branch Police alerting the Chief Minister about her antecedents. Let Pinarayi Vijayan explain this to the people of Kerala because everything associated with Swapna Suresh is illegal,” said Surendran.