M Sivasankar, suspended IAS officer in Kerala, had thrice gone to Gulf countries with Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the gold smuggling case, during 2017 and 2018, the Enforcement Directorate informed a court in Kochi on Monday.
The ED, probing the money trails of the racket, made the submissions before the special court for PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) cases. It also filed a petition for judicial remand of Suresh, Sarith PS and Sandeep Nair at the end of their custody with the agency.
The three were in ED custody since August 5.
Referring to the questioning of Sivasankar, former principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the ED said that it was revealed that in April, 2017 Swapna had travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with him.
Again, in April 2018 the woman had travelled to Oman and met Sivasankar who was on a visit there then and they returned together to India from the Gulf nation, it said.
"It is further revealed that during October 2018 A-2 (Suresh) and Sivasankar travelled together to UAE and returned together and this particular trip was coupled with the visit of the Chief Minister of Kerala to UAE for seeking assistance of Indians there for flood relief in Kerala,” the ED submitted.
The court remanded the accused to judicial custody till August 26.
The ED also said that Swapna kept the proceeds of the crime in a bank locker jointly operated with a third person as per the instruction of Sivasankar.
Also opposing the bail plea of the accused, the ED said an in-depth investigation into these aspects was to be conducted.
The bail application in the ED case is likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday.
Last week, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court and the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Economic Offences, in Kochi have dismissed the bail plea of the three.
The agency had questioned Sivasankar on Saturday for the second time.
It had earlier filed a written submission in the court that the officer, suspended after his links to Swapna surfaced, was fully aware that the integrity of the woman was dubious.
Sivasankar had also been interrogated earlier by the NIA and the Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate probing separate cases related to the gold smuggling using diplomatic channels of the UAE consulate through the international airport in Thiruvananthapuram.
(With PTI input)