Kochi: More details of the events leading up to the arrest of Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, the duo arrested over a major gold smuggling case with likely terror links, have emerged.
After their names cropped up in the case, both had been on the run and reportedly left for Bengaluru from Kerala. It has now emerged that an unidentified vehicle had followed them to Bengaluru where they were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday. A probe has been initiated into such a report.
Swapna, who planned to surrender at the court, intended to proceed to Kochi from the Kerala capital, the base of her operations and place of residence. But Sandeep, who was with her, allegedly tried to dissuade her from making such a move.
After Sandeep allegedly informed the gold smuggling racket about this, they considered other steps such as to file an anticipatory bail in the Kerala High Court, located in Kochi, and delay the surrender.
It was at this juncture, some people started following especially the vehicle in which Swapna and family were travelling. That vehicle had a Mattancherry registration number. However, this number is suspected to be fake. Goons from Kochi, who have links to the hawala network in Kerala, were suspected to be in the vehicle. Before leaving Kochi, Sandeep had reportedly recorded Swapna's voice on the mobile phone and sent it to those in the car.
Daughter’s call gave away hideout
Also, it has emerged that Swapna's daughter had made a phone call to a close friend in Thiruvananthapuram, and said that her life was in danger. But the friend was under the custody of the IB officials during this time. As the daughter made the phone call from a satellite phone, the cyber cell could not find her location. The IB officers then asked the friend to tell Swapna’s daughter to switch on her SIM-card phone. This proved to be decisive for the NIA to track down their location in Bengaluru.
Swapna and Sandeep were arrested from a service apartment in Koramangala in Bengaluru on Saturday night. Her husband and two children were with her at the time of arrest.
The NIA was tracking about 15 phones of those close to Swapna since Wednesday in a bid to trace her.
The Customs had seized 30kg gold, worth Rs 13.5 crore, from a diplomatic baggage in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5. The Union Home Ministry had directed the NIA to take over the probe last week.
Swapna and Sandeep are among the four booked by the NIA. P S Sarith, her former colleague, and Faizal Fareed of Ernakulam are the other two.
Fareed is yet to be arrested.
The NIA booked the four under the provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act as it suspects links to likely terror financing.
