Gold smuggling case: NIA examines CCTV footage of Kerala secretariat to probe office fire

After the NIA took over the smuggling probe it asked the chief secretary to provide CCTV footage from July 2019 to July 5, 2020. Initially officials manning the control room said some cameras were damaged in lightening, but later admitted that visuals can be retrieved.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the Kerala gold smuggling case on Tuesday examined the CCTV footage of the secretariat and the room where some files were gutted in a mysterious fire last week.

Main accused Swapna Suresh and her accomplice Sandip Nair were arrested from their hideout in Bengaluru in July. At least, 20 people have been arrested in the case and many central agencies are helping the NIA in the ongoing probe. (HT PHOTO.)

The examination will continue for a couple of days, people familiar with the probe said. After the NIA took over the smuggling probe it asked the chief secretary to provide CCTV footage from July 2019 to July 5, 2020. Initially officials manning the control room said some cameras were damaged in lightening, but later admitted that visuals can be retrieved.

Later they said some of the visuals are quite heavy and difficult to copy and asked the NIA to mention a specific period and time so that they can copy them. In the midst of a tiff, a minor fire occurred at the general administration department and some “important files” were destroyed in it. While officials blamed it on a short circuit, opposition parties alleged that the fire was intentional in order to destroy evidence in the smuggling case.

There are reports that main accused in the smuggling case Swapna Suresh was a regular at the state secretariat and many officials helped her to get access to important people. The NIA sought the visuals to check her access to the seat of power. After the smuggling came to light on July 5, the government had suspended the CM’s powerful secretary M Sivasankar, a senior IAS officer, for his alleged liaison with Suresh. Later the NIA, Customs and Enforcement Directorate had questioned Sivasankar. The NIA suspects that many officials had helped her.

The smuggling case was discovered after the customs seized 30 kg gold from a consignment that came in the name of an employee of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consular office in Thiruvananthapuram. Later, the case was handed over to the NIA and main accused Swapna Suresh and her accomplice Sandip Nair were arrested from their hideout in Bengaluru a week later. At least, 20 people have been arrested in the case and many central agencies are helping the NIA in the ongoing probe.