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The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking transfer of the trial in the gold smuggling case in which senior IAS officer M Sivasankar — who was formerly principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan — is one of the accused, to a designated court in Karnataka.
Issuing the notice to the Kerala government, a bench of Chief Justice of India U U Lalit and S Ravindra Bhat fixed it for hearing on October 20.
The ED in its plea “submitted that at every stage of the investigation there has been an intervention and interference by the state machinery in the exercise of power under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act)” by the agency and that “timely judicial intervention is necessary to ensure that illegal attempts to derail proceedings are thwarted”.
It said that “recent events have demonstrated that illegal means are being deployed to apply pressure on the co-accused to taint and influence the co-accused and thereby interfere with the course of justice. These overwhelming facts demonstrate that local police and state government machinery are trying to manipulate and influence the accused and witnesses”.
The case has its origin in the seizure of 30kg gold worth Rs 14.82 crore at Trivandrum International Airport in July 2020. This was camouflaged as diplomatic baggage to the UAE Consulate, making it immune to checking at the airport as per the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
The customs registered a case against two staffers of the Consulate — Swapna Prabha Suresh and P S Sarith — and a cargo agent Sandeep Nair. The ED claimed that the seizure was only the tip of the iceberg and there were 21 such consignments of gold which was smuggled into India, worth more than Rs 80 crore.
Later, the NIA also registered a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The ED subsequently opened a case on the basis of the NIA case. Trial in the case is currently going on before the Special Court for PMLA cases, Ernakulam.
The ED plea said that “due to the involvement of powerful persons in the state of Kerala, from the very beginning, there has been a concerted effort by the state machinery at the behest of” Sivasankar “to thwart and derail investigation under PMLA and subsequently, the proceedings before the trial court”.
It pointed out that “on 06.06.2022 and 07.06.2022, the Respondent No. 2 (Swapna Suresh) has given a Statement u/s 164 CrPC before the Ld. Judicial Magistrate First Class-III, Ernakulam, wherein she has levelled allegations against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family members, besides some top bureaucrats, including M Sivasankar…in connection with some smuggling activities”.
It added that “following this, the case has come under intense media gaze and coverage and the Respondent No. 2 has been intimidated and threatened with more vigour”.
The ED said that “important persons including the Respondent No. 2 are being pressured to retract statement(s)…” and “false and frivolous allegations are made against the I0 (Investigating Officer) with an ulterior motive to tarnish the image of the investigating agency and to sabotage the further investigation with the aid and assistance of highly influential accused and other persons”.
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