The Kerala High Court on Thursday dismissed the anticipatory bail petition of a key accused person, Swapna Suresh, in an alleged gold smuggling case involving top government officials, Live Law reported.
The court also rejected a similar plea filed by Sarith PS, whose name has also come up during the investigation.
Justice Viju Abraham said that Suresh faces charges under Sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, both of which are bailable offences.
In Sarith’s case, the judges noted that he had not even been named as an accused person in the case, so his anticipatory bail plea has no grounds.
The case pertains to gold worth Rs 15 crore that had been seized from diplomatic baggage in July 2020. Customs officials had found the gold during the inspection of an air cargo consignment addressed to the Consular General of the United Arab Emirates in Thiruvananthapuram.
Suresh is one of the accused persons in the case.
On Tuesday, Suresh had told reporters that she had testified against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s wife Kamala and daughter Veena, his former principal secretary M Sivasankar, former chief principal secretary Nalini Netto and former minister KT Jaleel for their alleged involvement in the gold smuggling case.
She had also alleged that the Kerala chief minister had taken a bag full of money to the United Arab Emirates in 2016. Vijayan had refuted the allegations, claiming that Suresh had a “certain agenda” against him.
In her petition, Suresh alleged that Vijayan wanted her to be in jail so that the police could coerce het into taking back her statements before the court, PTI reported. She claimed that a person named Shaji Kiran had come to her office at Palakkad to talk to her about the statement.
Suresh alleged that Kiran put pressure on her to say that she had made the deposition before the court as she had been instigated by her lawyers, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party. She also alleged that Kiran threatened her with dire consequences if she did not do so.
However, the public prosecutor on Thursday told the court that Suresh and Sarith had filed the anticipatory bail petition only in order to make false claims in the public domain, according to Live Law.
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