Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 6 (BPNS)
Swapna Suresh, the first accused in the infamous gold smuggling using diplomatic channels has come out of jail after she got bail in all the six cases filed against her. She is coming out of prison after a period of one year and two months for the first time since she was jailed.
She was released from the Attakulangara Women’s prison at Thiruvananthapuram and her mother Prabha Suresh received her outside the jail premises.
The Kerala high court had granted bail to Swapna Suresh in the UAPA case registered by the NIA. While she was granted bail on November 2 owing to official formalities, her release was delayed to Saturday.
The Kerala high court while granting bail to Swapna and seven others in the UAPA case registered by the NIA said that prima facie the court could not find any evidence citing that they had committed any terrorist act as alleged by the NIA.
The arrest of Swapna Suresh and her accomplices including P.S. Sarith and Sandeep Nair who were alleged to be involved in the smuggling of gold through diplomatic channels using the UAE consulate at Thiruvananthapuram as a cover rocked Kerala politics.
Several agencies had probed the case involving the smuggling of 30kg of gold worth Rs 14.82 crore from diplomatic baggage at the air cargo centre of Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in June 2020.
The key accused were Swapna Suresh, P.S. Sarith, and Sandeep Nair. Swapna and Sarith were former employees of the UAE consulate In Thiruvananthapuram while Sandeep Nair was a businessman and doing some contract work for the consulate.
Swapna and Sandeep were arrested by the NIA while Sarith was arrested by the customs.
The case had taken turns and was sensational after there were reports of the involvement of the Kerala Chief Minister’s office and subsequent arrest of the powerful Principal Secretary of the Chief Minister, M. Sivasankaran.
