KOCHI: The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA) advisory board, constituted to review the preventive detention of two accused in the gold smuggling via diplomatic channel, will meet on Monday to review Swapna Suresh’s custody.
A three-member advisory board comprising High Court judges was formed to review COFEPOSA detention in the case. The board meeting will be held at the High Court conference hall.
“Currently, COFEPOSA has been invoked against Swapna and Sandeep Nair. Swapna had approached the board to review her preventive detention. She has raised some factual ground claiming that preventive detention was illegal. However, all details regarding her involvement with us would be presented to the advisory board,” said customs sources.
Customs has also sent a proposal to a joint secretary-level officer at the Centre to invoke COFEPOSA against seven persons including first accused Sarith, the mastermind of the deal Rameez and another accused Jalal. “We sent the proposal two weeks ago. We are expecting detention order before the end of this month. All statements of accused and witnesses were sent to New Delhi as part of the procedure,” a customs officer said. Customs has approached CBI to issue Red Corner Notice against Khalid Ali Shoukary, the Egyptian who smuggled out $1.9 lakh from Thiruvananthapuram to Cairo, which was facilitated by Swapna and Sarith.
With the Ministry of External Affairs clarifying that Khalid is not a diplomat but just a former finance head of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, customs believes that he can be brought to Kerala with the help of Interpol.