Thiruvananthapuram: The nexus of government officials and shady elements came to light as the probe into the gold smuggling case proceeds. Suspended Kerala bureaucrat M Sivasankar's link to accused Swapna Suresh is one of the aspects of the probe by the National Investigation Agency and the Kerala government. The former principal secretary to the chief minister and former secretary to the IT department has reportedly told the NIA interrogators that they are 'just friends'.
In his statement to the NIA, the tainted bureaucrat claimed he was impressed by Swapna's abilities.
She would diligently complete the tasks given to her. I was not aware of her connections to gold smuggling racket. She could have been suspected of being a power broker. There was nothing else that was suspicious about her - Sivasankar defended himself in his statement.
The NIA reportedly did not ask him any questions that could ruffle him. A detailed interrogation is scheduled for Monday.
Earlier it was reported that the IAS officer is a relative of Swapna's husband.
Probe at the Secretariat
The Kerala Secretariat too is under the ambit of the NIA probe as Swapna had frequented the offices of Sivasankar in her capacity as the Operations Manager of the Space Park, an undertaking of the IT department then headed by him.
The sleuths are keen to know if any of the accused had visited Sivasankar at his office in the days immediately before the seizure of the gold at the Trivandrum International Airport in early July.
Accordingly, the NIA has requested CCTV footage from the Secretariat from July 1 to 12.
Arrested accused K T Ramees, a native of Malappuram, and Jaleel were in Thiruvananthapuram when the diplomatic parcel with concealed gold was set to arrive at the city airport. The NIA has already collected information about Sivasankar's travels and phone calls during these days.
It has also recovered information that was deleted from Swapna’s phones and emails.
NIA awaits Faisal
The NIA believes that the investigation will reach a critical stage when the third accused in the case, Faisal Fareed, is extradited from the UAE and brought to India.
It is suspected Faisal had sent the gold through the diplomatic bag.
The probe team has reportedly prepared a questionnaire to be handed over to Faisal. The questions are based on the statements and evidence collected from the other accused arrested in the case so far.
The case pertains to the seizure of 30 kg gold from a UAE diplomatic bag.
