Trivandrum:A team of seven National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials inspected the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Consulate attache's apartment in Thiruvananthapuram's Pattoor on Sunday night.
The search was conducted following the suspicious involvement of the attache in the Kerala gold smuggling case.
On July 18, the NIA team took Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, accused in the gold smuggling case, to their respective residences for evidence collection in Trivandrum. They are currently under the custody of the NIA.
Sarith will be taken to his residence on Monday for evidence collection.
Former Principal Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister, M Shivashankar will also be questioned by the NIA and interrogation will be held at NIA headquarters in Kochi.
Read:|Gold Smuggling: Missing UAE Consulate Kerala Police security officer found
Earlier, Kerala Police officer Jaya Ghosh who was deployed as a gunman attached to the UAE Consulate went missing on July 16. He was found in a semi-unconscious state with cuts on his wrist near his house the next day. Cops suspect that he attempted suicide and now has been admitted to a private hospital.
Ghosh's relatives said that he was feeling unsafe and jittery as he was threatened by some unknown people.
Reports have surfaced that Swapna had called Ghosh earlier this month a few times.
The gold smuggling case which has large scale ramifications first surfaced when P. S.Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate in Trivandrum, was arrested by the Customs on July 5 when he was facilitating the smuggling of 30 kg gold worth Rs 14.82 crore in diplomatic baggage to Thiruvananthapuram from Dubai.
It turned murkier when the name of Swapna Suresh, a former employee of the UAE Consulate and employed with the state IT Department, surfaced. The case turned full circle when their links with the second most powerful person in the Chief Minister's office, his Principal Secretary M. Sivasankar, were revealed.
Along with Sivasankar, another top official in the state IT department, Arun Balachandran, has also been removed.
The NIA has also request Interpol to issue a blue corner notice against Faisal Fareed, another accused in the high-profile case. Earlier, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Fareed by a special NIA court in Kochi.
Read:|Gold smuggling: NIA takes accused to their residence for evidence collection
