Swapna Suresh, the main accused in the gold smuggling scam using the diplomatic immunity route involving Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, several communist leaders, bureaucrats, and foreign agents, recently opened up in an interview. This is what she had to say.
“National Investigation Agency (NIA) officers are not bothered about terrorism or gold smuggling. They did not want further details. The confrontation between M Sivasankar IAS and me was shocking.” A confrontation is a kind of cross-examination used by officers to collect evidence. Sivasankar is an accused in the gold smuggling case.
“Sivasankar was treated like a VVIP and sat opposite me in the NIA office with his mobile devices.” An officer called Rahul Nair (he was not even the investigating officer but was part of the NIA team), and Sivasankar confronted Suresh. They wanted her to remain behind bars for six months, following which they would ensure her bail without any guarantors. The whole bureaucracy was into it together, alleged Swapna. Incidentally, she was bailed out after sixteen months.
All officers must submit their mobile phones, bags, and even tiffin boxes at the security counter before entering the NIA office. This is where Sivasankar entered with his mobile phone. Suresh asks, “tell me, what is the meaning of all this?”
“How does a habitual offender like Sandeep Nair (another accused and a local CPM goon), who already has a smuggling case against his name, become an approver in this NIA case and subsequently get excluded from the chargesheet? An accused can be an approver based on his degree of involvement. Sandeep did not know the story about the higher-ups involved in this case and is in no way connected to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Embassy or the Consulate General.”
Faisal Fareed, an NRI Malayalee in Dubai, smuggled gold by hiding it inside household equipment. The consignment was addressed to UAE attaché Rashid Khamis Al Sheimeili. “Khamis is not an accused in the NIA case. A Bharatiya can be a terrorist, but a UAE national cannot be one?” The team of cronies attached to the UAE Embassy left in a hurry, never returning. Currently, our investigating agencies claim that the UAE nationals are not ready to ‘cooperate.’
On 17 July 2020, the personal security officer of UAE attaché Rashid Khamis Al Sheimeili, who was reported missing, was located in an isolated area near his residence in the Akkulam area in the capital. Civil police officer Jayaghosh was found with the veins of his hands slashed. By then, he had also returned his service pistol to the authorities.
His family members alleged that he had received threats from those involved in gold smuggling and was under severe stress. Media and the police claimed that he had attempted suicide, but it defies logic that someone slashed both his wrists. More controversies emerged, but they were shoved under the carpet quickly.
The smuggled gold was confiscated in early July 2020, at the height of the covid lockdown. How did Suresh travel during the covid lockdown? “Sandeep and Sivasankar planned and prepared the journey from Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam and then to Bengaluru. Sivasankar told me I had to meet a lawyer in Ernakulam and sign an anticipatory bail application.”
Sivasanakar stated that the investigation must stop at her and not reach the others. At Ernakulam, they tried to separate Swapna Suresh from her children, who were accompanying her. She rejected the idea, cried, created a scene, and all moved to Bengaluru together.
It was when Kerala police thrashed ordinary citizens who stepped out to buy even essentials for their children. Suresh was surprised when she reached Bengaluru and checked the special pass issued for their journey. Only four names were there—Nair, Swapna’s former husband Jayasankar, and her two children. Swapna’s name was not there.
She was supposed to go to Mumbai and then move to Nagaland. Once there, she was to lie low until everything settled down. She alleged that the plan was to eliminate her.
Nair and Suresh were arrested from Bengaluru. National Investigation Agency (NIA) took up the gold smuggling case on 10 July 2020, and the accused were apprehended on 11 July 2020. Incidentally, they were found living in a hotel within walkable distance from the infamous Exalogic Solutions Pvt. Ltd., owned by Vijayan’s daughter Veena Riyas.
Sivasankar was arrested in November 2020, jailed for just 98 days, and released on bail in February 2021. Curiously he was reinstated without much fanfare and he is now the principal secretary of the Sports and Youth Welfare Department. Sivasankar is back in government service and is allegedly actively tampering with evidence, intimidating enemies, and has the support of central investigating officers.
In November 2021, the NIA claimed they failed to come up with any evidence relating to terror funding or the involvement of dark transnational forces in the case. Stringent provisions like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling) were withdrawn, and all the accused were granted bail.
In June, Customs said they tried their best to gather evidence but found no witnesses or proof. They questioned former minister K T Jaleel and former speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, but they were not prosecuted due to a lack of evidence. Swapna Suresh did provide even more evidence, but Customs declared that a further investigation could not be launched solely based on her statement. If Swapna Suresh were to provide all the proof and investigate, why do we need a Customs department?
Swapna Suresh and another accused, PS Sarith, had given their statements in the customs-probed gold and dollar smuggling cases. The accused had sent proceeds from the gold smuggling and other operations back to the UAE in dollars. Swapna Suresh and Suresh were mere middlemen.
Though the customs filed the chargesheet in the gold smuggling case, the agency decided not to turn Swapna Suresh and Sarith approvers. It meant the dollar smuggling case was over and that only Swapna Suresh, Sarith, and a few gold smugglers were involved in the gold smuggling case.
Also in June, the ED filed a Transfer Petition court asking for the gold smuggling case to be transferred to Bengaluru. Swapna Suresh supported the move. She said that the ED knew there was enough evidence. Why else would the ED go up to the Supreme Court to transfer all these cases to Bengaluru?
Vijayan’s communist government tried to intimidate ED by appointing a Judicial Commission against them, but the courts slammed the government and threw the idea into the waste bin. So, the latest ED Transfer Petition is absurd, and Swapna Suresh is naive. How can the ED demand that they will inquire only if and when a case is transferred to an area of their choice? That petition is gathering dust in court, and there is no investigation happening as of now.
Swapna Suresh added that she was shocked when she found that the investigating officer, ED Deputy Director P Radhakrishnan, who had all the evidence, was giving day-to-day updates to the Chief Minister. “I was completely dependent on that little fellow Radhakrishnan Sir but when he turned out to become a big cheat, you know, it was shocking.” She noted that political interferences from the CM and his family could tamper and slow down the entire investigation and later go off the picture by eliminating her.
In August, Radhakrishnan was transferred to Chennai. Interestingly, leftist media, who until then claimed that the whole gold smuggling case was a damp squib, jumped in. They claimed that ‘informed sources’ said that the transfer came when the investigation made far greater progress than was known to the public and that the ED will face a setback in the probe.
They alleged that the investigation officer was transferred due to the political interventions of some officials who have close links with BJP central leadership. Such statements showed that they wanted Radhakrishnan back so the alleged spying for Vijayan could go on. It seems intimidatory tactics have worked, and ED has not worked on the gold smuggling case for the past six months.
Will Swapna show the same resolve and take this case to its logical conclusion?
“Everyone sees him (Vijayan) as honourable chief minister. But he is also just a culprit. And there is a saying when a culprit indulges in some criminal activity, he will always leave a loophole. Correct? And that will come out. Because he is not god.”
“As you call him, he is a notorious man. Let him keep his goondaism to himself. Let me see how he will save his daughter. Let me see how he will cover all his shady, really filthy activities. Somebody has to bring it out. The honourable chief minister has left loopholes.”
“If I have mentioned anything wrong, let him file a case against me, put me behind bars, or even kill me. I heard that he is very good at shooting, has got a gun, and is more or less like a Naxalite or something. Let him show his true colour. I will fight because I do not consider him an honourable chief minister”
Suspiciously, no investigating agency has questioned Vijayan or his family till now. There are allegations that his son-in-law is the driving force behind the greed. The gold smuggling saga is a perfect case of how accused officers investigate crimes that they themselves are involved in and come out clean.
In October, the Supreme Court postponed the hearing in the SNC Lavalin case against Vijayan for a record 32nd time. Not even a single senior advocate from the central government appeared for the CBI. Incidentally, all these investigating agencies report to Home Minister Amit Shah. Everyone knows that our courts are famous for nepotism, absolutism, and laziness. Is the central government (especially the MEA) heading the same way?
