Nearly a week of staying at large, Swapna Suresh, who has been accused in the unprecedented racket of gold smuggling, has been taken under custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday night at the high time when the smuggling case has been causing trouble to the ruling state government of Kerala, as Swapna allegedly observed ties with the private secretary of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. 

According to the reports, the NIA team, which took the probe on the case last Thursday as per the direction of the Central government, has detained Swapna and Sandeep Nair from a hotel in Koramangala in Bangalore on Saturday based on the phone calls the accused made to their friends and families back in Kerala. These phone calls had helped the NIA team to trace and locate the hideout of the accused. 

Swapna and Sandeep were arrested by the NIA from the Octave Studio Hotel in Koramangala in Bangalore around 7 pm on Saturday. They booked two rooms in the hotel and the NIA traced Swapna's location, they found that her husband and two children had also been accomodating the hideout. Following the detention, the NIA authorities had seized passports, Rs 2.5 lakh cash, and three mobile phones from the accused. 

The reports stated that Swapna and her family reached Bangalore a couple of days back along with Sandeep Nair amid a tight scanner. They reached Bangalore by road through the car from Kerala. While the Kerala government has imposed strict restrictions in the inter-state travel in the wake of COVID-19 spread, it's still unclear and yet to be ascertained by the authorities on how the accused exited Kerala by evading serious checks and checkpoints in the Kerala border amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

While Swapna was under tight search as she has been at large since her name spelled in connection to the gold smuggling case, her phone calls played an important role in tracing and locating her hideout which pinned at Bangalore. While Sandeep Nair's location was traced during his phone call to his brother who is in Trivandrum, Swapna's location was traced when her daughter called one of her college friends in Trivandrum. 

From the tip-off through the phone calls, the NIA authorities rushed to Bangalore and nabbed them and the arrest has poured major breakthrough in the case. According to the ANI, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair would be produced before the NIA court in Kochi, Kerala on Sunday -July 12 following which they would be taken under custody for further investigations in the racket that was plotted through the diplomatic channel. 

#UPDATE - Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA). Both will be produced before NIA Court in Kochi, Kerala today. https://t.co/5hmm0jxS85

— ANI (@ANI) July 12, 2020

Swapna Suresh was working in UAE Consulate's office in Trivandrum during which she reportedly made high-level contacts including with Sivashankar, who was serving as one of the principal secretaries of Kerala Chief Minister and as the IT secretary of the state. After Swapna fired from the consulate, she managed to get a job as a business development manager with Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited, and this portfolio was held by Chief Minister.

After the racket came to the revelation, it has unveiled shocking developments as the gold was smuggled through the Diplomatic cargo from the UAE addressed to the UAE Consulate in Trivandrum. On July 5, the cargo with 30 kilograms of gold worth of Rs 13.5 crore was seized by the customs at the Trivandrum Airport. Swapna Suresh had been named as a prime accused and upon the investigation, Sarith Kumar, a former employee of UAE consulate was detained after which Swapna went absconding.

Swapna had called the airport officials to know the status of the diplomatic baggage with 30 kilograms of gold which was later seized. During the investigation, Sarith Kumar had named Sandeep Nair in connection to the case after which Swapna and Sandeep were under fierce manhunt. The Center has directed the NIA to probe the matter as per the request of the Kerala Chief Minister and the Central Agency had taken the probe on Thursday.

On Friday, the NIA has booked an FIR against Swapna Suresh under the grounds of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Earlier, Swapna Suresh had moved her anticipatory bail petition to the Kerala High Court. However, the court has deferred the hearings by stating that the case has been taken by the NIA. The opposition parties Congress and BJP had urged Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to step down from the office and they further questioned how Swapna Suresh had managed to cross the border by evading the check posts. 
 

Must- read: Shocking report: Pinarayi Vijayan under trouble...Who is Swapna Suresh?