Kerala gold-smuggling case: In a checkered career, Swapna Suresh pulled strings

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The career graph of Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the high-profile gold-smuggling case, has been one of spectacular climbs, ever since she relocated to Kerala and started her career as a low-key employee in a run-of-the-mill travel agency in the state capital.
Residents in Neyyattinkara, where her mother still lives, say Swapna relocated from Abu Dhabi around 2010-11. Not many had any idea about her activities, though several of them attest to her opulent lifestyle in the years that followed.

From her early childhood, Swapna had lived in Abu Dhabi, where her father was working.There, she had a brief stint in the passenger service wing of Abu Dhabi airport before her move to her home state.

It was in 2011 that she completed her bachelor’s degree in commerce from Dr Dadasaheb Ambedkar University in Maharashtra. Adept at developing contacts, Swapna soon become part of power circles when she joined Air India SATS, a ground-handling agency at Thiruvananthapuram airport. She had to quit the job after a series of sexual harassment charges plagued the company, leading to the ouster of a few AISATS and Air India officials. One of the victims approached the high court against the complainant and the crime branch registered an FIR against Swapna, for forging documents for a fake complaint, based on the HC directive.

Immediately after leaving the job at the airport, she joined the UAE consulate here in a key position. However, she was sacked a few years later, allegedly for improper professional behaviour.
Her foray into the IT department, say insiders, was after PwC selected her with the help of a manpower supply agency. “Kerala State IT Infrastructure Ltd (KSITL) provided a workstation to space park project management unit. She worked as an operations manager there. She was reporting to ICT academy CEO Santhosh Kurup who is the special officer of the space park project,” they said.

It was in July last year that the state government announced its plans to set to a space systems park.
Sources add that a background check by the manpower agency didn’t reveal any case against her. Swapna continued to work for KSITL till Monday, when her contract was terminated.