As always expected, Kerala media has once again never failed to outsmart the Kerala politics. Now the Left Democratic Front (LDF) ruled state government has been put under pressure to answer the surprising shock of events, which occurred on Sunday (5 July 2020), where an alleged accused, Swapna Suresh is presumed to have used her ties with the State consulate officials to smuggle 30.24kg of gold (worth Rs 13.5 crore) from UAE upon landing at the State capital of Kerala, Thruvananthapuram. The accused, a former UAE consulate officer, is a marketing liaison officer of the Space Park under KSITIL and have been claimed to abscond from the scene and 
have not surrendered yet. This turn of events brings into light the abuse of diplomatic immunity, corruption within the government office as well as using the public laws to avoid being caught. One might wonder, if the government is ruling the State in the interest of public or to satisfy the few top authorities in filling up their personal pockets.
Going deeper, the controversy of smuggling racket was brought to light on Monday (6 July 2020) where a former PRO of the Consulate, Sarith Kumar was questioned upon collecting the baggage via diplomatic bag intended for the UAE Consulate. Sarith Kumar has been arraigned by the customs office after which he confessed to the crimes, though, reportedly, he has not yet confessed to having any ties with Swapna Suresh. The fact that this was not the first consignment via abusing diplomatic protection rendered to government official on duty left the public flabbergasted. To quicken the damage control, the principal secretary, an IAS officer in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), M. Sivasankar, was to quit, due to his alleged involvement with Swapna Suresh, in the gold smuggling racket. Furthermore, facts came to light when witnesses reported on the said officer’s frequent visits to the accused’s apartment and lack of protocols followed in her appointment to Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited (KSITIL) under the IT department. It has been notified by the investigation agency that offices of the Chief Minister and IT secretary have exerted pressure on the Custom Official to release the accused, which has been proved by phone records of the above alleged parties.
Also Read : Kerala Press Clubs Misuse Crores of Public Funds: State Governor Steps in
Elaborating on legal protection rendered to official correspondents, a diplomatic baggage comes with certain protection for carrying items between a diplomatic mission and its home government or related diplomatic official entity and can constitute any form, i.e., briefcase, crate, cardboard box or even a shipping container.
The most important aspect of this protection is that the ‘diplomatic bag’ is protected from search or seizure, even codified in Article 27 of 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Coming back to the controversial issue, Swapna Suresh has been claimed to have forged the documents of the UAE consulate to acquire diplomatic immunity to run the smuggling operations, which were seized by custom authorities upon receiving intelligence report of suspicious alleged operation. Once after attaining permission from External Affairs, customs seized the bag, and the officials exposed the smuggled items of gold in the presence of officials from UAE consulate and the top-tier journalist as witness to the unfolding event. This clearly violate the trust of the public and opens up the possible lacunae in the legal protection rendered in the namesake of diplomatic immunity and raises questions on previous actions of those authorities claiming to be on diplomatic missions. This forayed into unravelling a number of investigation agencies to probe further enquiries connected with illegal smuggling. Simultaneously, distressed by the turn of event, UAE has launched an investigation to find out who all is involved within the illegal operation, stating the involved culprits have tarnished the reputation of the UAE mission in India.
Nevertheless, the coincidence of implementation of triple lockdown strategy from 6 July 2020, declared on the same day, which entails a more devised and stringent measures of containment pave a suspicious road to coinciding the State Capital lockdown announcement with the unfolding of the smuggling racket on the same day. Were the measures imposed to avoid the possible protest and media frenzy? Whether the Epidemic Ordinance regulations and guideline were misused to impose penalties, if such situation arises, of the possibility of the public’s reaction upon coming to know of the failed smuggling mission? And many other questions on alleged CMO’s involvement with the smuggling racket and how long has this been going on. Although the Chief Minister of Kerala claims to deny knowing the accused and her smuggling operations, he is still not clear as to her appointment into the State office under IT sector.
However, the images of Swapna Suresh doing rounds in the Kerala media, proving to be her alleged close associations with the CM Pinarayi Vijayan, and the sacked Principal Secretary, M Sivasankar and even the Kerala Legislative Assembly Speaker, P. Sivaramakrishnan have given more teethes to the Opposition parties in Kerala demanding the Chief Minister’s resignation.
Further reports claim that she was appointed through PriceWater Coopers (PwC), making the whole issue of her appointment suspicious, as many previous scams of PwC have arisen in connection with the LDF government. Moreover, the PwC stated that the accused appointed was on the payroll of a third-party agency, of which provisions of short-term resources is benefitted to them. This fact-check brings us, again back to the possible foul in her appointment, where it is verified by PwC agency for not having done necessary background check on the accused.
Also Read : Another Man vs Environment Conflict: Kerala’s Ashtamudi Lake
All these happenings have just come up before the upcoming Kerala elections, exerting more pressure now more than ever to the current ruling LDF to clear up the controversy and be answerable to the general public. The similar agenda was also witnessed in the previous election where the solar scam emerged with accused Saritha Nair, who exposed the involvement of Congress leaders, even so much as to forcing the previous Congress CM of Kerala, Oommen Chandy to step down from the office. Witnessing the turn of events, which has gone deep due to the smuggling racket and CMO’s involvement since Monday, have been eating the public alive of the possible corruption that will jeopardise the substantial administration of LDF government in curbing the spread of COVID-19. Most importantly, it is threatening the reputation of Kerala State for its established, well-administered, coordinated public health system during the pandemic situation.
