NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has approached the Supreme Court seeking a transfer of the trial in the gold smuggling case from Kerala to Karnataka saying that a "free and fair trial" of the case is not possible in the state.
ED alleged in its plea that there is a close nexus between the accused and top officials and functionaries of the Kerala government.
Recently, the key accused in the case, Swapna Suresh, appeared before the Kochi unit of the Enforcement Directorate after being summoned by the probe agency in view of her recent statement before a magistrate court here under section 164 of the CrPC.
Suresh, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here, was taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with another accused Sandeep Nair from Bengaluru on July 11, 2020.
The NIA, Enforcement Directorate (ED), and Customs conducted separate investigations into the racket that was busted with the seizure of gold worth Rs 15 crore from the diplomatic baggage of the UAE Consulate at Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 5, 2020.
Several people, including M Sivasankar, the former Principal Secretary to the Kerala Chief Minister, and another ex-employee of the UAE Consulate here, Sarith P S, were arrested in connection with the case.
In the State Assembly earlier, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan turned down the Opposition's demand in the Assembly for a High Court-monitored CBI probe into the gold smuggling case involving the UAE consulate.