KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court in Kochi has denied permission to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the alleged irregularities in the Wadakkancherry Life Mission housing project, to physically take possession of the over `1 crore seized by NIA from two lockers of Swapna Suresh.
The court also dismissed a petition filed by Swapna — an accused in the 2020 gold smuggling case — to get back the ornaments and money seized by the NIA. According to Swapna, the NIA had seized 58 items from her and submitted before the court as part of the probe into the gold smuggling case. She claimed there is no direct link between the seized items and the commission of offence.
Objecting to it, the NIA claimed that all the seized properties are in the custody of the court and the same cannot be released to the accused. According to ED, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had registered a case suspecting that some persons had obtained pecuniary from Life Mission project. Subsequently, former principal secretary to the CM M Sivasankar, Swapna suresh, Sarith P S and Sandeep Nair were arraigned accused. Based on this, ED launched a probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.