Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister's former Principal Secretary was summoned to the Customs Department's office here on Tuesday evening for questioning.

The investigating team had earlier reached Sivasankar's home to find more clues into the sensational gold smuggling case.

It is suspected that Swapna Suresh's husband has rented out a flat in Sivasankar's same residential complex. Investigators are trying to ascertain if the flat was on rent at the end of June.

The Kerala bureaucrat is under the scanner of the Customs over his links to the accused in the major gold smuggling bid quashed at the Trivandrum International Airport early this month.

Swapna Suresh, the accused number 2 in the case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), is said to be close to Sivasankar.

The IAS officer was earlier removed from the IT secretary's post after it emerged that he had close ties with Swapna. Sivasankar was also ousted as the principal secretary to the chief minister.

Gold handlers in net

Three more people have been remanded in Customs custody in connection with the gold smuggling case. They have been charged under the COFEPOSA (The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities) Act.

The three allegedly obtained smuggled gold from K T Ramees, who has been arrested and remanded in Customs’ custody till July 27.

Meanwhile, the bags seized from Sandeep Nair when he was arrested in Bengaluru will be examined by the NIA special court later on Tuesday.

The NIA will interrogate Swapna and Sandeep, the fourth accused, together. The two have been remanded in the NIA’s custody till July 21.

150 kg gold sneaked in Sept

The details of the enormity of the gold smuggling operations carried out by Swapna and her gang are slowly emerging as the NIA and other central agencies intensify their investigations.

It has now emerged that Swapna had started smuggling gold through the diplomatic channel in September. She had, in fact, smuggled 150 kg gold till her luck ran out on July 5 when the Customs Department seized a diplomatic baggage with 30 kg gold worth Rs 14.8 crore.

She carried out the operations even when she was an employee of Space Park, a project under the Kerala IT department.

How Swapna, Sandeep fled

Swapna and Sandeep entered Bengaluru with a pass issued in Tamil Nadu that allowed them to travel till Maharashtra. Even though the car in which she was fleeing was in her name, she had taken the pass in some other name.

Investigations have also revealed that Swapna and some other gang members escaped from Thiruvananthapuram on July 5, the day the 30 kg gold was seized from a diplomatic baggage.

They travelled at night knowing that a triple lockdown will be announced in the capital city of Kerala.

The group reached Varkala and stayed there for two days. It was here that they decided to leave the state and headed for Bengaluru via Kochi.