THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Following a request by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the smuggling case, the general administration department(GAD) has started copying CCTV footage from the state Secretariat which will be handed over to the anti-terror agency. The files are being transferred to hard disks and will be handed over to the NIA after the entire footage of the last one year are fully copied to the external devices, a Secretariat source said, adding, the agency had originally sought footage from July 1, 2019 to July 12, 2020.
However, realising that this will be a time-consuming process, the NIA asked for footage from June 28, 2020 to July 5, 2020 on a war footing. This has already been provided to the agency, the source said.
The NIA had sought video footage for a full year to check whether suspicious business firms or individuals had taken part in any business discussions with high-level officials, it was revealed.
“The IT department under Sivasankar had organised several events including conclaves. The agency could be having its own doubts over some of the participants and hence are perusing the video footage,” said a highly-placed source.Some of the information that the NIA collects would go to certain other national security and intelligence agencies.
“All the details that would be collected from a year-long footage is not just for probing this gold smuggling case. It will be disseminated to other agencies concerned for various other security purposes,” the source said. However, it is not yet known whether the agency had sought the original footage or a copy of it.
Agencies likely to question CMO staffer
The Central agencies are likely question a staffer of the CMO soon in connection with the case, it is learnt. They had earlier found that diplomats from the UAE consulate had got in touch with the staffer to secure an appointment with the CM and invite him to a few events hosted by the consulate. This contravenes the protocols as consular staff should communicate with officials and political leaders of the host country only through the State Protocol Officer.