NIA court rejects Swapna Suresh's bail plea

Kochi: An NIA Court here has rejected bail plea of Swapna Suresh, the second accused in the gold smuggling case. The court observed that the petitioner is prima facie involved in the deal. The court also noted the NIA's submission that the accused has influence in the top notches. 

The NIA also argued that granting bail to the accused may lead to sabotage of evidence and will affect the probe.

Meanwhile, A two-member National Investigation Agency (NIA) team has gone to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in connection with its probe into the case, sources said on Monday.

The source said that the NIA team will also interrogate key accused Fazil Fareed and a couple of others who have been taken into custody by the UAE authorities.

The gold smuggling case first surfaced when PS Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate in Kerala, was arrested by the Customs on July 5 when he was allegedly trying to facilitate the smuggling of 30 kg gold at the Trivandrum airport in Thiruvananthapuram through diplomatic baggage from Dubai.

Key accused Swapna Suresh and co-accused Sandeep Nair of Kochi were arrested by the NIA from Bengaluru after the case was handed over to the agency. The NIA has so far arrested 12 people in connection with the case.