Kerala: ‘Sarith PS received diplomatic cargo seven times before’

KOCHI: Hinting at the possibility of an organised racket at play in the Thiruvananthapuram smuggling case, customs sleuths said Thursday that Sarith PS, the first accused had received cargo addressed to a diplomat in the consulate nearly seven times in the past six months after he and another suspect Swapna quit their respective jobs at the consulate.
“We suspect a possibility of gold being smuggled whenever Sarith was the receiver of such cargo at the Thiruvananthapuram airport," a senior customs official said, "If the usual procedure for receiving diplomatic baggage is to use consulate vehicles for transportation, Sarith went to the airport in his private car.We believe that instead of going directly to consulate or the home of the Charge d’Affairs, he used to go to other places including a location in Perurkada direction." According to the senior official, Sandeep, another suspect on the run, was the mutual contact between Sarith and Swapna.
“Sandeep is a key part of this nexus. We suspect that he played the part of finding buyers for the said gold, while Swapna played the role of the facilitator. Sarith, used to work as a receiver at the airport by exploiting his connections at the consulate,” said the source adding that getting to Sandeep would take them closer to the destination of the gold.
Meanwhile, customs sources are strongly suspecting a link between officials of the consulate and the syndicate. “We suspect that such an operation cannot be pulled off without the racket having an influence in the consulate. We are probing if the suspects have any such links. CCTV footage from the airport would be examined to understand the issue further,” said the sleuth.
However, the initial statement of the Charge d'Affairs, Rashed Khamis Ali Musaiqri Al Ashmia that he used to take ‘the help of Sarith, the former PRO of the consulate for odd jobs as he was not familiar with the rules and procedures of India’, itself is forcing the sleuths to look into the matter further. Meanwhile, customs sleuths rubbished reports of raids in Kozhikode and Ernakulam. “We are looking for the absconding accused at various parts of the state. As one person has filed for anticipatory bail, we believe that the others would follow suit as there are very few places for them to go considering the Covid-19 situation.