Kochi: Swapna Suresh, the prime accused in the gold smuggling case in Kerala, was granted bail by a court here Monday. This happened because Customs failed to file a chargesheet against Swapna Suresh within the stipulated period of 60 days. Swapna, however, will continue to remain behind bars. She is an accused in the alleged terror link of the gold smuggling case probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Swapna is also an accused in a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the money trail of the illegal trade.
The special court on Economic Offences granted statutory bail to Swapna as the Customs (Preventive) Commmissionerate did not file a chargesheet. According to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), an accused is entitled to default bail if a chargesheet is not filed within 60-90 days as per the offence.
Earlier, the other key accused in the case, including Rameez and Sandeep Nair, were also granted default bail in the case being investigated by the Customs.
The smuggling came to the fore when Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Kochi, seized 30kg of gold worth Rs 14.82 crore found camouflaged in diplomatic baggage from the UAE on July 5.
