Thiruvananthapuram/Kochi: As soon as a voice clip believed to be that of the jailed Swapna Suresh leaked online recently it was suspected that vested interests linked to the gold smuggling racket could have scripted it. Now, confirming the doubts, she revealed to Customs interrogators the other day that some personnel of the state police were behind the entire episode.
Swapna said she was briefed in advance about what all required to be said during the phone conversation which was recorded by an official of the Special Branch of the Kerala Police.
The central intelligence agencies have received information that a Special Branch official led the entire operation on the directions of higher-ups and what went viral on social media was a telephone conversation held on August 6.
One of the female police staff guarding her had dialled the number of the Special Branch official and handed over the phone to Swapna, the interrogation revealed.
Swapna, a key accused in the gold smuggling case, said that she was not told anything about the person on the other end.
Even when Swapna was in the custody of the central agencies like the NIA, ED and Customs it was the state police that stood guard for her. During the Enforcement Directorate's custody in Kochi, five women police personnel were put on duty for her.
A portion of the conversation got selectively leaked through the voice clip which was published in an online media on November 18.
In the voice clip, Swapna is heard saying that ED had promised to make her an approver in the case if she gave a statement against the Kerala chief minister. The accused also said in the audio message she was made to sign the statement without being permitted to go through the contents.
In the same voice clip, Swapna also mentioned that she was under pressure for giving a statement that she had gone to Dubai along with bureaucrat M Sivasankar for carrying out financial negotiations on behalf of the chief minister.
The central intelligence agencies have jointly decided to trace everyone behind the voice clip and submit a detailed report before the court. Even though the crime branch had initiated a probe based on the report filed by jail DGP about its leak, the probe could not go forward. One of the reasons for the deadlock was the lack of opportunity for probe officials to record Swsapna's statement.
The phone conversation is said to have been recorded at the women's jail at Attakulangara.
