Kerala gold smuggling case: Man held for issuing fake degree certificate to accused Swapna
Darpan News Desk IANS, 23 Aug, 2022 12:59 PM
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 23 (IANS) The Kerala police on Tuesday arrested a Punjab resident for allegedly issuing a fake University degree certificate to Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the gold smuggling case.
A team of police officials, attached to the Cantonment Station, arrested Sachin Das from Amritsar in Punjab. The police team, along with Das, is expected to arrive on Thursday.
Swapna was arrested for smuggling gold by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team from Bengaluru in July 2020. Her arrest was followed by the arrest of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's principal secretary -- a top IAS official M. Sivasankar -- who is out on bail after spending several weeks in prison in connection with the case.
During investigation, it was found that Swapna is a school dropout but managed to get a degree certificate from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University. Based on the fake certificate and influence of high ranking officials like Sivasankar, she secured a plush job in the IT department which was headed by Vijayan.
Though a case was registered against her, no action was taken but after her allegations this June that Vijayan, his wife and daughter were engaged in the gold and cash smuggling, the police got into action and after a thorough probe, took Das into custody from Punjab.
What was the worst is that he went to admit his wife at a local hospital on Monday morning after his brutal attack but concealed the severed body part at his residence to make sure that the doctors are unable to reattach it.
Congress leader and former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is undergoing a one-year jail sentence, was on Monday admitted in heptology ward of the PGIMER in Chandigarh due to liver-related problems, a statement said.
Mann reached Moosa village in Mansa district to express his condolences to the bereaved family. Heavy police security has been deployed outside the residence of Moosewala. A few villagers held a protest against Punjab Police over heavy security deployment ahead of the Chief Minister's visit.
Currently lodged in Tihar jail in a MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) case, Bishnoi is allegedly involved in more than five dozen criminal cases lodged against him in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab. He had once threatened to kill Bollywood actor Salman Khan.
The Chief Minister said Moosewala was a multi-talented artist who was blessed with mesmerising voice and creativity. He said his untimely and tragic death has given a major blow to the music industry in general and millions of his fans in particular.
The plea, filed through advocate-on-record Namit Saxena and advocates Sarthak Chaturvedi and Shubham Jaiswal, submitted that there is a storm of fear and terror in Punjab, which warrants interference by the Supreme Court as fundamental rights of entire population of Punjab have been jeopardised at large.
