The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has secured a court order to obtain the confessional statements of Swapna Suresh and P. S. Sarith, the accused in the diplomatic channel gold smuggling case, made before the Customs in December 2020.
P. S. Nishi, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences), issued the order on Monday.
The directorate had approached the court on June 16 seeking the certified copies of the confessional statements recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
An earlier plea of the Directorate to obtain the statements was dismissed by the court on March 2, 2021 on the grounds that the investigation was not complete in the case. The agency approached the court afresh this month for the statements as the Customs Preventive had filed a Prosecution Complaint in the gold smuggling case.
Earlier statements
Swapna and Sarith had given confessional statements to the Customs twice in the gold smuggling case, one on December 12, 2020 and another one on December 4, 2020.
Later, Swapna also gave another statement this month before the Principal Sessions Court, in which she levelled allegations against the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his family members and K. T. Jaleel, the former Minister in the first government led by Mr. Vijayan.
The directorate sought the certified copies of the statements for “further necessary investigation under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.”
The court has posted the plea of the directorate for the copies of the confessional statements given by the accused in the dollar smuggling case to June 22 as the Customs sought time for filing its statement.
The Customs case is that the accused for reportedly assisting the smuggling of US dollar.
On its part, the National Investigation Agency had booked cases against Swapna, Sarith and others under Sections 16, 17 and 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The accused were granted bail by various courts in the case.
