The Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate has begun interrogating M. Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and the key accused Swapna Suresh and P.S. Sarith together as part of its probe into the diplomatic baggage gold smuggling case.
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The questioning of the trio is being held at the agency’s office here. The investigating team is probing whether Mr. Sivasankar was aware of the smuggling of foreign currency to the tune of $1.94 lakh to the UAE by Ms. Swapna and Mr. Sarith. The Customs had earlier mentioned the suspended bureaucrat as a 'person of interest' in the case.
The money was sent to the UAE through the Thiruvananthapuram airport last year. The sleuths suspected that an Egyptian employee in the UAE consulate was behind the dollar smuggling. Ms. Swapna is learnt to have helped him in the smuggling by using her consulate identity card.