SC issues notice on Kerala gold smuggling trial transfer

New Delhi

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to four accused in response to a plea from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking the transfer of the gold smuggling trial from Kerala to Karnataka. A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal directed the accused to respond within six weeks and scheduled the hearing for July, after the summer break. The ED’s petition, filed in 2022, claims that a fair trial cannot be conducted in Kerala due to the alleged close ties between the accused and top Kerala officials.

The ED has named Sarith PS, Swapna Prabha Suresh, Sandeep Nair, and M Sivasankar as parties in the case. The investigation stems from a major gold smuggling operation uncovered when authorities seized Rs 15 crore worth of gold from diplomatic baggage at Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 5, 2020. Swapna Suresh, a former UAE Consulate employee, and Sandeep Nair were arrested in Bengaluru in July 2020 by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The ED has argued that the trial cannot be impartial in Kerala due to the influence of powerful figures in the state government. The case is being investigated by the NIA, ED, and Customs, with several arrests made, including M Sivasankar, a former principal secretary to Kerala’s Chief Minister, and Sarith PS, another former UAE Consulate employee.