Gold-smuggling through diplomatic bag case: Swapna Suresh claims threat to life

Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the gold- smuggling through diplomatic bags case, on Sunday claimed she has been receiving calls since the morning of July 2 threatening to eliminate her if she continues to name Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his family, or LDF MLA K T Jaleel in connection with the case.

Releasing an audio clip of the purported threat, Suresh said that earlier too she was getting similar threats, but never took them seriously as they were over internet calls. But, the recent calls were not only from mobile numbers, the callers identified themselves, gave their addresses, and threatened to eliminate her if she continued to pursue the case and did not settle the same, she claimed before reporters.

She said she has forwarded the voice recording of the latest threats along with their identity details to the State police chief as a complaint and hopes that necessary action would be taken.

”I do not know how long I will be alive, hence I decided to share what is happening to me with the media so that people also get to know what is going on.

”What I understand about the agenda behind these threats is that they want to obstruct the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) investigation into the case as it is presently questioning me,” she claimed.

She alleged that even the Crime Branch of the State police wants to hinder the ED probe and that is why a conspiracy case has been registered against her.

Suresh had recently made some startling revelations before the media wherein she had alleged that Vijayan, his family members and LDF MLA K T Jaleel were involved in the case. It had created a political storm in the State.

She had claimed before the media that she had recorded the same in her statement before the court under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Strongly reacting to the allegations, the Chief Minister, in a statement, had said, ”unsubstantiated allegations have been made through the media from some quarters for narrow political reasons” and this was ”part of some political agenda”.

Suresh was released from jail in November last year, 16 months after her arrest in the case.

A former employee of the UAE Consulate here, she was taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with another accused Sandeep Nair from Bengaluru on July 11, 2020.

The NIA, Enforcement Directorate (ED), and Customs conducted a separate probe into the racket that was busted with the seizure of gold worth Rs 15 crore from the diplomatic baggage of the UAE Consulate at Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 5, 2020.

Several people, including M Sivasankar, the former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, and Sarith P S, another ex-employee of the UAE Consulate here, were arrested in connection with the case.