SC orally hints at transfer of trial in Kerala gold smuggling case to Karnataka

New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, March 20 (IANS) The Kerala gold smuggling case that rocked the Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2020 took a new turn on Thursday when the Supreme Court orally observed that since the prima facie allegations are “serious”, the plea of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to transfer the trial out of Kerala should not be opposed.

The oral observation came as a bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal heard the transfer petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 2022 seeking to transfer the trial of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case, at present before the Special PMLA Court at Ernakulam, to a Special Court for PMLA cases in Karnataka.

“Allegations are serious and why does the (ED) not go for transfer,” Justice Sundresh said as the Kerala government sought a deferment of hearing since senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state, was busy in another court.

When senior advocate Jayant Muthuraj, appearing for some accused, submitted that notice has to be served on the additional accused added in the case through the supplementary complaint, Justice Sundresh said: “In all fairness, you should not even oppose this(transfer petition).”

But when Sibal came before the court, he opposed the transfer and pointed out that since the investigation is now over and charges have been framed, there was no need to transfer it to Karnataka.

Sibal added that the ED initially sought transfer to Karnataka, but now they do not want to transfer it, hinting this was because a non-BJP government came to power in Karnataka in 2023.

“Why did they need Karnataka then and why do they don’t need it now?” he asked.

The bench then told advocate Kanu Agarwal, appearing for the ED, that the notice has to be issued to the newly added accused persons as well so as to avoid arguments of prejudice raised by them in the future.

“Once you make other accused also parties, they also need to be heard. Otherwise, it will be a technical problem. Though prima facie we feel…(matter has to be transferred),” Justice Sundresh observed.

As Sibal said: “Now they don’t want Karnataka”, Justice Sundresh said: “We can have Karnataka”, indicating that the matter can be transferred to the state.

“I have no problem with Karnataka,” Sibal replied.

Justice Sundresh then told the ED’s counsel that the matter can be transferred to Karnataka if the ED was sticking on to its original stand.

“Now the senior counsel for the respondent (State of Kerala) is saying that he has no objection to your original stand (transfer to Karnataka). If you stick on to this…,” Justice Sundresh said.

Sibal then questioned the need for transfer at all, when all the accused persons were in Kerala and the investigation was over.

Advocate Krishna Raj, appearing online for accused 1 & 2, said that it was curious to see the state opposing the transfer when his clients were not objecting to it.

He also contested Sibal’s claim that the investigation was over, saying that his client had given a statement under section 164 of the CrPC.

At the end of the hearing, the court adjourned the case by two weeks to enable the ED to implead the newly added accused in the transfer petition.

The smuggling came to light after the Customs Commissionerate (Preventive), seized gold worth Rs 14.82 crore at the Trivandrum International Airport in July 2020. The contraband was carried in the diplomatic baggage addressed to the consulate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at Thiruvananthapuram.

Among the key accused was the then close aide to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, senior IAS official M.Sivasankar.

Sivasankar was arrested and spent some time in jail before he got bail.

After that, he was reinstated and soon thereafter, he superannuated. Shortly after his retirement, he was again arrested in a bribery case and after being in judicial custody, secured bail from the apex court on medical grounds.

Among the other accused is Swapna Suresh, who briefly worked with the UAE Consulate office in the state capital and later was employed in an IT project of the Kerala government. Close to Vijayan and his family, she, after coming out on bail, alleged Vijayan, his wife, and daughter and alleged they were involved in gold smuggling.

The other accused include P.S.Sarith and Sandeep Nair who were both close to Swapna Suresh.

When both the ED and CBI reportedly put the Vijayan government in a tight spot, the Kerala Police registered an FIR against the ED officials alleging fabrication of evidence and also constituted a judicial commission against the ED investigation.

But the Kerala High Court blocked both these attempts.

–IANS

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