Kerala Gold smuggling case: Phone call details reveal accused contacted Kerala Minister KT Jaleel several times
Jul 14, 2020
Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], July 14 : Phone call records of Swapna Suresh and Sarith PS, accused in the high profile Kerala gold smuggling case have revealed that they had conversations with M Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Chief Minister multiple times and that as many as nine calls were made between Higher Education minister KT Jaleel and Swapna.
These do not include the phone calls between Swapna and the Minister's personal staff.
Call data details from April 20 to June 1 revealed that the prime accused in the gold smuggling case Sarith telephoned Sivasankar several times during the said period. The phone records show that the former IT secretary also made calls to Sarith five times. The duration of one of the calls is 755 seconds made on April 20 at 11:33 pm.
However, Minister KT Jaleel while admitting to having received and made calls to Swapna said that it was made for official purposes.
"On May 27, I received a message from the Consul General of UAE. Every year on the occasion of Ramadan, the UAE Consulate donates food kits as part of the relief effort. This time, as per his request, I had arranged it from Consumerfed. He had told me Swapna would contact me. All calls were made for this official purpose," said Jaleel who also shared the screenshot of the message with the media.
Meanwhile, Sivasankar reached the Thiruvananthapuram Customs Office after Customs officials served him a notice at his residence summoning him for questioning. The questioning started around 5:15 pm and went on for over four hours.
This development comes days after 30 kg of gold worth Rs 14.82 crore smuggled in consignment camouflaged as diplomatic baggage was busted by Customs in Thiruvananthapuram.
The NIA has registered an FIR under Sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, against four accused persons, of which three have been arrested.
