Kerala gold smuggling: Supreme Court asks Centre whether it can scan diplomatic package

A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Satish Chandra Sharma made these oral remarks while hearing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) plea seeking to transfer the trial in the case outside Kerala.

The top court sought to know what was the procedure for scanning such diplomatic packages. The court also asked whether the government could scan these diplomatic packages. ED counsels submitted that he will take instructions in this regard and get back to court. The matter thereafter adjourned.

Enforcement Directorate had filed a plea seeking to transfer of trial in the case pending before the Special Court for PMLA Cases, Ernakulam to a Special Court for hearing PMLA cases in the State of Karnataka.

Kerala Government has opposed the Enforcement Directorate's plea seeking to transfer the gold smuggling case to Karnataka and said that the probe agency's plea was to tarnish the Government of Kerala by raising baseless allegations.

In the petition preferred by the Directorate of Enforcement, the agency sought transfer of the trial on the ground that the concerned Respondents are being influenced and intimidated through threats and false cases by Senior Officials of the Kerala Police and the state government at the behest of the other respondent, in order to thwart and derail the trial and thereby protect certain powerful individuals holding important positions in Government who are involved in the case.

In 2020, the Customs Commissionerate (Preventive), Cochin had registered against Sarith PS, former PRO at UAE Consulate, Swapna Prabha Suresh, former Secretary to Consul General of UAE Consulate, Sandeep Nair and others relating to the seizure of 30 KG of 24 Karat gold worth Rs. 14.82 crores at Trivandrum International Airport which was camouflaged as diplomatic baggage to UAE Consulate which is immune to checking at airport as per the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

This seizure was only the tip of the iceberg and there were 21 such consignments of gold which was smuggled into India, which runs to more than Rs. 80 crores.

Thereafter, a case had been registered by the National Investigation Agency under sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 against the three individuals on July 10 2020. Both offences registered by NIA and the Customs have scheduled offences under the PMLA, 2002.

The ED also stressed that based on the case registered by the NIA, an Enforcement case was recorded on July 13 2020 by the Enforcement Directorate.

ED submitted that Investigation under PMLA, it was revealed that the accused persons had committed the offence of Money Laundering defined under Section 3 and punishable under Section 4 of the PMLA, 2002 and therefore a Prosecution Complaint was filed before the Special Court (PMLA), Ernakulam on October 6, 2020.

Thereafter, a supplementary Prosecution Complaint was filed u/s 45 of PMLA, 2002 before the Special Court under PMLA, Ernakulam against M Sivasankar on December 24 2020 arraigning M Sivasankar in the Complaint.

The Trial in the case is presently ongoing before the Special Court for PMLA cases, Ernakulam in Kerala.

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 to thwart and derail the investigation and the proceedings, ED had said.

The ED had said it has preferred the present petition because the State Police at the behest of a highly influential accused is trying to subvert and derail the investigation under PMLA and important persons are being pressurized to retract statements.

The ED added, "If the trial is continued in the State of Kerala, the highly influential accused persons will create hurdles and also the co-accused would be pressurised and threatened to make false allegations and to make false evidence and thereby derail the ongoing investigation and trial." (ANI)