The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Swapna Suresh, the main accused in the gold smuggling case, to appear before it. She has been summoned along with the documents at ED’s Kochi office at 11am.
The summons come after Swapna Suresh made allegations against senior IAS officer and chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar. In an interview, Suresh claimed that Sivasankar was “aware of her activities” and “he helped her in many ways including getting out of the state after the seizure of yellow metal”.
She also said that Sivasankar was behind the audio clip from jail in which she was forced to say that central agencies want her to name Vijayan.
The Kerala gold smuggling case pertains to the smuggling of gold in the state through diplomatic channels. It had come to light after 30 kg gold worth ₹14.82 crore smuggled in a consignment camouflaged as diplomatic baggage was busted by the customs department in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5, 2019. She was arrested in July, 2002, and after spending 16 months behind bars, Swapna Suresh was released from jail in November last year.
