From being the prime accused in the politically sensational Kerala gold smuggling scam, spending a year in judicial custody to working in a Kerala-based NGO for tribal welfare post bail, Swapna Suresh has brought in yet another twist in the saga.
She has made the startling allegation of receiving a death threat from Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Swapna, in her anticipatory bail application filed in the Kerala High Court, alleged that on June 8, a man named Shaji Kiran, claiming to be close to Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, was sent to threaten her and her co-accused Sarith Nair.
Swapna’s police complaint states she was asked to surrender before the Chief Minister and that she had made allegations against the CM at the instigation of the RSS and BJP. She claimed that Shaji said if she didn’t comply, a string of cases would be filed against her and Sarith Nair, and that “they will not see daylight in their life again”.
This is not the first time Swapna has tried to use the media to claim that she is being made a “scapegoat”. Her media statements claiming there have been relentless attempts to harass her only go on to show that she has become a political pawn, used by parties to target each other “claiming to expose corrupt practices”.
After being released from judicial custody in November 2021, Swapna reportedly landed a job as the Director, Women Empowerment & CSR at the NGO, but alleged that her detractors have targeted her at every point and sought to be “left alone”.
For a state like Kerala where people love their gold and invest in them heavily, it would be interesting to note that on an average around Rs 10,000 crore worth of gold is smuggled in per year as per Customs officials. They attribute this to loopholes in the system.
It is quite interesting how this infamous gold smuggling case was unearthed at a time when Kerala was under lockdown while battling the first wave of Covid-19. The smuggling racket had deep international connections and allegedly deeper connections of the accused who worked in the CMO and the Customs department, including M Sivasankar, a senior IAS officer in Kerala and the then secretary to Pinarayi Vijayan.
The “smuggling of gold into God’s own land” was done through diplomatic channels. It came to light when on July 5, 2020, Customs officials stumbled upon a baggage containing 30 kg gold worth Rs 14.82 crore. It was being smuggled in as a consignment camouflaged as ‘diplomatic baggage’.
The ‘diplomatic’ baggage was filled with dry fruits, electronic items, several packets of food and bathroom fittings which had arrived from Dubai. When the document trail was investigated, officials found that the baggage was meant to have been handed over to a Rashed Khamis Ali Musaiqri Al Ashmia, the acting Consul General at the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.
Upon further investigation, PS Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate and the man who was to receive the baggage on behalf of Ashima, was arrested. Sarith was quick to give up Swapna who was also a former employee of the UAE Consulate but was later employed with the Kerala IT Department.
The conspiracy went deeper as the name of Sivasankar was revealed by Swapna and Sarith, claiming he misused his power and in his official capacity had made three to four requests to the Customs department for clearance of such ‘special baggage’ in the past. Swapna told the investigators that Vijayan’s office and the CMO were fully aware of this gold smuggling and electronic items using diplomatic channels and Sivasankar was in the know as well.
Sivasankar in his autobiography titled Aswathamavu: Verum Oru Aana alleged that Swapna had gifted him an iPhone and trapped him in the process. Swapna called her relationship with Sivasankar “strong” and claimed to “have exchanged so many emotions and so many things it’s not just an iPhone”.
It is here that the case got more intriguing. Sources close to the investigation said it was revealed that on six earlier occasions, Jamal Hussain Al Zaabi, the former UAE Consul-General had smuggled gold to Kerala for himself. The investigating agencies also suspect that another UAE Consulate staffer smuggled gold into Kerala using billiard sticks.
Customs investigation revealed that gold was smuggled using diplomatic channels 18 times between November 2019 and March 4, 2020. It was also revealed that the former UAE attaché Al-Ashmia was in urgent need of money to complete the construction of a house at Ras Al Khaimah, after a contractor in charge of the construction went absconding.
Even the then Consul-General Zaabi was building a house in Dubai and was making some key investments in Germany where he offered Swapna partnership as well.
Swapna informed the authorities that she had briefed Sivasankar about the smuggling of electronic items, gold and even cosmetic items. So when the time came to receive commissions, it was code-named – ‘consul is eating mangoes’.
In the newest tirade of allegations, Swapna claims that in 2016, she was employed as the executive secretary to the UAE Consul-General. Sivasankar had met her for the first time and told her that CM Vijayan had forgotten to carry a bag during his trip to Dubai. “When we scanned the bag that was brought to our Consulate, we realised that it contained currency. I have said this in court,” Swapna claims as part of her new revelation.
While the scam continues to haunt the Pinarayi Vijayan government, its twists and turns continue to enthral readers.
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