Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, the second and fourth accused in the sensational gold smuggling case, have been arrested from Bengaluru by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
They will be brought to Kochi on Sunday. Swapna and Sandeep will be questioned by the NIA after which she will be handed over to the Customs Department for further questioning.
Soon after the news of Swapna's arrest, the Central Reserve Police (CRPF) personnel have been deployed at the Customs Headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram and the security has been beefed up.
Swapna was arrested from a service apartment in Koramangala in Bengaluru. Her husband and kids were with her at the time of arrest. However, details about Sandeep's arrest are not known yet.
Meanwhile, the Customs Department's search in Sandeep's residence in Thiruvananthapuraml is still continuing.
NIA reportedly traced Swapna through a phone call. The NIA was tracking about fifteen phones of those close to Swapna since Wednesday, to trace her.
She reportedly fled Thiruvananthapuram the day P S Sarith (first-accused) was arrested and went to Bengaluru via Kochi, where she might have stayed two or three days.
Swapna and Sandeep are among the four booked by the NIA in the smuggling of 30 kg of gold by way of diplomatic baggages at Trivandrum International airport. Sarith and Faisal Fareed of Ernakulam are the other two.
Swapna's arrest and NIA's ongoing probe is likely to have a larger political impact in Kerala, especially now with the assembly and local body elections looming on the horizon.
Political controversy
On July 5, the Customs officials at the Trivandrum International Airport in Kerala seized around 30kg of gold worth Rs 13.5 crore from an air cargo addressed to the United Arab Emirates Consulate in the state capital.
The smuggling soon turned into a political controversy with the investigators identifying Information Technology (IT) department staff Swapna as a key conspirator in the incident. She has been expelled from the job after she was named as a suspect in the case.
The IT portfolio is being handled by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. This has given an opportunity for the opposition political parties to allege that the chief minister's office knew about the smuggling racket. Congress has sought a CBI probe into the smuggling case, while BJP has demanded inquiry into the alleged phone calls made from the chief minister's office to rescue the conspirators.
Principal Secretary to the CM and IT secretary Sivasankar had to step down from his as post over reports of his association with Swapna.
It was also found that Swapna had likely deceived authorities in the Kerala government as well as private recruitment agencies and used fake certificates to land a plum job in the Space Park.
Swapna's defence
Earlier, Swapna had in an audio clip stated that she had no role in the crime. She said she was being framed in the case for political gains and threatened to commit suicide if her character assassination continued through media.
She had stated that she had gone into hiding not because she had any role in the crime, but she was afraid of those who are behind it.
Terror links
It was on Friday that NIA began its probe in the sensational gold smuggling case detected at the Trivandrum International airport.
They were entrusted with the case after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention for an effective investigation into a case that also has ramifications regarding national security.
The NIA suspected links to likely terror financing and booked the accused under provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The statements given by the wives of Sarith and Sandeep helped the investigators link the case to terror-funding.
The two women had mentioned the names of two other people besides that of Swapna as being involved in the smuggling. A background check of the two people revealed that the smuggling operations were linked to terror organisations.
