Vigilance to probe Swapna Suresh's fake certificate case

Thiruvananthapuram: The police will hand over to the Vigilance Department the case about Swapna’s fake degree certificate that she had used to get a job in the Space Park.

City police commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyay has recommended that the case be transferred to the Vigilance. There has been no progress in the case, which is currently under the Cantonment assistant commissioner.

Although the police had recorded Swapna’s arrest, they did not get her custody. She is in the custody of the NIA in connection with the Trivandrum airport gold smuggling case.

The representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Vision Technology, the firms listed as the second and third accused in the case, also did not appear before the investigating team. The Cantonment CI said they did not come citing the restrictions imposed in view of the COVID pandemic.

The case was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by the MD of Kerala IT Infrastructure Limited, which is in charge of the Space Park where Swapna was employed. PwC and Vision Technology have been named in the case for recommending Swapna who had provided the fake certificate for the job.

The certificate had the name of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar University in Maharashtra. The university, however, made it clear that the B.Com certificate that Swapna presented for the job was forged. The university also said that it did not offer a B.Com course.

Sivasankar’s interrogation postponed

The Customs Department's interrogation of M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary of the chief minister, in connection with the gold smuggling and dates import cases that was to be conducted on Tuesday has been postponed. This was necessitated after Sivasankar sought more time to appear for the questioning and two officers of the Customs investigation team had to go on quarantine.

When Sivasankar was questioned for more than 11 hours each on Friday and Saturday, his answers to most questions was that either he did not know or he did not remember. He did not provide proper answers to questions about his closeness to Swapna, the foreign trips that they made together, and the mysterious chats with his chartered accountant.

Sivasankar has claimed that it was his decision alone to distribute the dates that were imported from the UAE to government-run orphanages. The Customs, however, said this claim would not hold water since the dates were imported with the permission of the protocol officer.

The Customs will also collect details of the ceremony that was held to inaugurate the distribution of the dates in which the chief minister had also taken part.

Accused planned smuggle more gold: NIA

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has told the special court that it has found evidence from P S Sarith's mobile phones that show that the accused in the Trivandrum airport diplomatic baggage gold smuggling case planned to continue with their racket.

The NIA also told the court that those associated with anti-national organisations are accused in the gold smuggling case.

The court has remanded five accused in the case in the custody of the NIA for further questioning. P T Abdu, K T Sharafuddin, Mohammad Shafiq, Hamjad Ali and Mohammad Ali are the accused remanded in custody for two days.