Kochi: Swapna Suresh, one of the main accused in the July 5 gold smuggling case, has told investigators that Khalid Ali Shoukri, the Egyptian national who was the head of the finance department at the UAE consulate, had planned to take away the gold by getting the diplomatic baggage detained by Customs officials at the Thiruvananthapuram airport sent back to Dubai without inspection.
Khalid had also made arrangements to ensure that the returned parcel was not delivered to Faizal Fareed from the cargo complex in Dubai. Swapna indicated that Khalid's move was based on the realisation that the quantity of gold in the parcel was huge.
According to investigators, Fareed was responsible for collecting hawala money in Dubai to arrange for the gold to be smuggled to Kerala.
Khalid realised that gold was being regularly smuggled in diplomatic parcels only when one such baggage was detained by Customs officials at the Trivandrum International Airport on June 30, Swapna said in her statement.
He had hoped that he would be able to use the influence of the UAE ambassador to get the parcel exempted from inspection at the Thiruvananthapuram airport and have it returned to Dubai, Swapna said.
According to her, Khalid had told her on July 4 that they could share the gold in the parcel among themselves and that it doesn’t have to be given to KT Ramees and his associates. Ramees is considered to be the mastermind behind the gold smuggling operations using the diplomatic channel.
She told the investigating officials that she did not reveal to anyone Khalid's plan to take away the 30 kg of gold in the diplomatic parcel worth Rs 14 crore. However, when the officials asked her if she had told about it to M Sivasankar, the Chief Minister's former principal secretary, she did not give a proper answer.
Swapna said that she had decided to collaborate with Khalid in this deal without letting Ramees and Sandeep Nair, another accused in the smuggling case, know about it as she had realised that the parcel contained more gold than what Ramees had claimed.
When it became clear that she would make more profit by having the parcel sent back to Dubai, she visited Sivasankar in his flat with her husband to influence him and get the detained parcel released, she told the investigating officials.
According to Swapna’s statement, Khalid had told her that he had obtained the permission of the Consul General of the UAE Consulate and the Ambassador for the plan to steal the gold.
