The United Arab Emirates is learnt to have expressed its discontent with India over its name being dragged to the gold smuggling case in Kerala. According to local media reports, the Gulf country has made it clear that the gold seized at Thiruvananthapuram airport was not sent through any diplomatic baggage.
The gold reached in the address of the UAE consulate in the state capital. However, the UAE is of the view that it was a personnel cargo and thus it did not hold any diplomatic immunity. Anyone could send gold from Dubai to the UAE consulate in Kerala, it argued.
The UAE said it is fully cooperating with the the ongoing investigation into the smuggling case, though it is conducting a separate probe on whether any of its nationals in the consulate had any role in it.
Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency, which is probing the case, has informed the Kerala High Court that Swapna Suresh, a former woman employee of the UAE consulate and the key suspect in the case, has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The counsels for the Centre and the NIA said Swapna had criminal antecedents and was 'involved' in arranging diplomatic papers for the smuggling of the over 30 kg gold seized by the Customs in Thiruvananthapuram.
Custodial interrogation of the woman was required to ascertain her role in the smuggling bid through the Thiruvananthapuram international airport, they said.
The NIA counsel submitted that the statements of R. Sarith Kumar, also a former employee of the UAE consulate and arrested in connection with the case, and the wife of another absconding accused Sandeep had been recorded.
Their statements revealed that Swapna, Sarith Kumar and Sandeep were involved in the gold smuggling, the counsel said.
Swapna, on the run since her name cropped up after seizure of the gold, in her anticipatory bail application claimed she had no involvement in the smuggling.
The gold smuggling case has taken a political turn with opposition Congress and BJP targeting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after Swapna was found working in the state I-T department, a portfolio headed by him, and sacked.
The NIA probe was ordered a day after Vijayan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his "intervention for an effective investigation" into the seizure of gold worth about Rs 15 crore.
