KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) submitted before the NIA court in Kochi, on Tuesday, that they have retrieved data worth 2,000GB from the laptops and smartphones of accused persons in the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair. Similarly, 2,000GB amount of data altogether was retrieved from digital gadgets of other three accused too. Even the deleted data, including videos, pictures and documents were recovered with CDAC’s help. NIA told the court that they need to confront the accused persons with newly-found evidence and need to probe further into the possibility of existence of new evidence. The court then granted four-day custody of Sandeep Nair, Muhammad Shafi and Muhammad Ali Ebrahim to NIA for further interrogation till Friday evening. Even though NIA sought custody of Swapna Suresh, the second accused in the case, she could not be produced in court as she is admitted in Thrissur medical college hospital following chest pain. The court will seek the hospital’s medical board’s opinionon Swapna’s health. The court will consider the application for her custody based on the medical report. NIA had also sought custody of Muhammad Anwar TM, another accused in the case, through the same petition on Monday. However, due to some clerical mistake at Viyyur Central Jail, where he is lodged, the authorities could not produce him in court on Tuesday for the hearing. He will be produced in court on Wednesday.
Swapna’s counsel submitted that despite court’s permission for Swapna to meet her family jail officials did not allow it.