Kerala gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh joins RSS-backed NGO

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 18 (IANS) Swapna Suresh, a prime accused in the infamous gold smuggling case, on Friday joined HRDS India, an RSS backed NGO.

Sapna reached the NGO's Thodupuzha office in Idukki distict and took up the post of director-Corporate Social Responsibilities.

On taking up a new job, she said it is going to be source of livelihood and will let the controversies surrounding her take their own course.

According to HRDS, she will be mostly working from the NGO's Corporate office in New Delhi.

The NGO has operations in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Tripura, Assam, Jharkhand besides Kerala.

Early this week, Sapna presented herself before the Enforcement Directorate after she was served a notice by them in the wake of new revelations against co-accused and top IAS official M.Sivasankar, who also was in jail and after getting bail, has been reinstated.

The case resurfaced last month when an autobiography written by the then principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan - M. Sivasankar revealed that 'he never did any favour to Swapna' and also added that 'he never knew the iPhone that was gifted to him by her was part of a bribe'.

Angered by this statement, Swapna said that Sivasankar had destroyed her life and he was aware of all the happenings.

She also pointed out that he had told her that he will take voluntary retirement and settle down with her in the UAE.

It was with his help that she, along with her husband and children and their friend Sandip Nair, managed to sneak out of Kerala in July 2020 after the case surfaced, when the entire state was under massive Covid travel restrictions, Swapna claimed.

Another revelation of hers was that of the two audio clips of hers, one which came out on the day she and her family were on the run to Bengaluru and another while in custody, she said, it was all stage managed and directed by Sivasankar and others.