Kochi: Amid the political clamour seeking CBI probe into the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case, a team of the central investigation team visited the Customs Preventive office in Kochi on Wednesday.
The CBI is reportedly probing whether any central government officials were involved in the shady deal. The central agency can take up the case at this point if central government officials are involved in it, reports said. The CBI can also take up the case if they suspect there was a conspiracy, sources said.
The CBI sleuths collected details of the case from customs office, according to TV reports.
"We haven't taken up the case yet," a CBI officer in Kochi told Onmanorama.
Investigation by a central agency is highly likely in the case, which has snowballed into a murky political controversy in Kerala with the opposition parties trying to corner Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the case. Th chief minister on Tuesday removed senior bureaucrat M Shivasankar from the posts of the secretary to the CM and principal secretary to the IT department following allegation of his links with Swapna Suresh, a main suspect in the smuggling case.
The Customs have decided to issue a look-out notice against Swapna, a former official of the UAE Consulate. She was immediately removed from the post of a consultant with the Kerala IT department. She is on the run after her name came up in the investigation into the gold smuggling scandal. She was named by former PRO of UAE Consulate, Sarith, who is currently under arrest.
Swapna's friend grilled
The Customs on Wednesday brought Swapna's friend Soumya to their Kochi office for questioning. Soumya is the wife of Sandeep who reportedly is a business partner of Swapna. Swapna was a partner of Sandeep's car repairing firm Carbon Doctor in Thiruvananthapuram.
On Sunday, the Air Customs attached to the Thiruvananthapuram airport had made a seizure of 30 kg of gold that arrived on a cargo flight and was kept in a warehouse here for release. The baggage had arrived from Dubai and is understood to have been marked to the UAE consulate which has its office in the heart of the state capital.
Following allegations of the role of the chief minister's office in the case, Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said he was ready for any probe.
"We have no say in it, we are ready for any probe and the Centre can decide whichever agency should probe this," said Vijayan.
The Congress-led UDF and BJP-led NDA have demanded the chief minister's resignation.
