Kerala gold smuggling case: Swapna Suresh walks out of jail

Thiruvananthapuram: Swapna Suresh, the first accused in Kerala's infamous gold smuggling case walked out of jail on Saturday after she got bail in all the six cases filed against her. She came out of the prison after a period of one year and two months. 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 on November 2, but her release was delayed to Saturday due to official formalities.

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 gold smuggling 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 became sensational after there were reports of involvement of the Kerala Chief Minister's office and subsequent arrest of the powerful Principal Secretary of the Chief Minister, M. Sivasankaran.