KOCHI: Probing the money laundering aspect behind the diplomatic baggage gold smuggling case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to temporarily attach key accused Swapna Suresh's bank lockers from which gold weighing 983 grams and cash worth Rs 1 crore were seized.
ED has also traced two immovable properties belonging to her in Thiruvananthapuram. According to ED sources, Swapna's bank accounts and lockers have been frozen.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had found Rs 36.5 lakh kept in a locker at the Federal Bank's Statue Junction branch and Rs 64 lakh and 982.5 gram gold from the State Bank of India locker at its Thiruvananthapuram City branch.
"The bank lockers which contained money and gold will be temporarily attached as part of the investigation procedure. We consulted NIA as they had unearthed the gold and cash. NIA officials told us that the Income Tax department is also probing the source of the money," an ED source said.
With regard to Sivasankar, the agency has found that the immovable properties in his name are ancestral. Though ED had asked Chief Minister’s Additional Private Secretary CM Raveendran to appear for interrogation on Monday, he failed to do so citing a medical checkup.
NIA to record voice samples of three accused
KOCHI: The NIA will collect voice samples of Sarith P S, Sandeep Nair and Rameez KT to probe terror links in the case related to gold smuggling using the diplomatic channel. A petition in this regard was filed before the NIA Court in Kochi on Monday.
According to NIA sources, the agency has recovered voice messages, passed on between the trio related to gold smuggling, which have to be verified using voice samples. "They had formed a separate chat group on Telegram and WhatsApp in which they discussed about the arrival of each consignment and persons to whom it was handed over," the NIA official said.
The court will issue an order in the petition on Wednesday. As part of the procedure, the accused persons will have to be produced at the court at a specified date, and their voice samples will be recorded by officials from C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram.