Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala accused that the office of the CM has turned into a center of corruption. While speaking about the smuggling through diplomatic baggage incident, he maintained that there were several attempts from the office of the CM to save the face of Swapna Suresh, who was dismissed from the IT department, in connection with the case. As was accused bym, there were two persons who tried their best to save Swapna – the first one being the IT Secretary, M. Sivasankar. However, he was reluctant to share the name of the second person. Though he didn’t name the person, he however suggested that the person works in the office of CM. He also wanted to know the role of the suspected ones in the deal of Pricewaterhousecoopers. Swapna is also a person, who is facing a Crime Branch investigation. The opposition leader questioned this and asked how a person, who is undergoing a crime branch investigation, got a job in a key position IT department. During the course of accusing the government, Ramesh Chennithala also demanded for a CBI enquiry on this. On the other hand, KPCC President Mullappally Ramachandran accused that a mafia gang works in the office of the CM.
That said, the neighbor of Swapna Suresh’s residence in Mudavanmukal Travancore Residence, said that IT secretary used to be a frequent visitor to Swapna’s house. As was narrated by the neighbor, several late night parties used to take place in her house. Earlier, it was upon questioning the arrested consulate officer Sarith, that the role of Swapna Suresh in the case got revealed.
As was confessed by Sarith before the investigating officials, they were part of around 10 successful attempts of smuggling gold in the past one year. It is estimated that they had smuggled gold worth more than INR 100 Cr. Even during these Covid times, they had managed to carry out their businesses 4 times. Meanwhile, the evidences of the gold smuggling have been taken to Economic Offence Court, Ernakulam. Customs officials said that the case is of serious in nature as it is capable of affecting the relations between these two countries
