THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: NIA officials probing the gold smuggling case visited the Crime Branch office in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday evening and sought information on Swapna Suresh's involvement in the forgery case that the state agency is currently probing.
The Crime Branch probe in the forgery case is inching towards the business end with officials categorically acknowledging that they have garnered enough evidence to prove her involvement. The statements of Swapna were collected prior to the lockdown when she reportedly spilled the beans on her role in the crime.
The Crime Branch started the probe on a High Court order after an Air India staffer lodged a complaint saying he was the victim of a bogus sexual harassment case. The Crime Branch in its subsequent probe found out that the signatures of 16 female staff were forged to frame him. Former Air India-SATS vice-president Binoy Jacob was arraigned as the first accused, while legal work is underway to implicate Swapna as the second accused. The Air India employee was targeted for exposing corruption in Air India-SATS.
Sources said the NIA sleuths took details of the statements given by Swapna when she was quizzed by Crime Branch cops prior to the lockdown. They also sought the details of the case from Crime Branch officials. NIA officials also shared some information pertaining to the forgery case they had extracted while interrogating Swapna.