THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A gunman attached to the UAE Consulate who went missing since Thursday night has been found. The gunman identified as Jayaghosh was found with wrist injuries near his house. The police shifted him to the KIMS hospital. It is believed that some crucial details would be obtained from him in the gold smuggling case. He was found missing from his wife’s house in Thumba last night.

The police said Jayaghosh slashed his wrist with the blade he had in his hand. The injuries are not so deep. He told police that he had swallowed the blade. He feared that the NIA and the customs would quiz him in the gold smuggling case. He told police that he is innocent and has not done anything wrong.

His wife had lodged a missing complaint at the Thumba police. Swapna Suresh had called him many times on the day the gold was smuggled through a diplomatic channel. There was proof for it in Swapna’s call list.

The relatives of Jayaghosh said he was feeling unsafe and jittery as he was threatened by some unknown people.

Reports have now surfaced that Swapna had called Jayaghosh early this month a few times. His brother-in-law told police that he received a phone call and he went missing after that.

In a related development, the UAE attache in the Consulate left here and reached Delhi and from there he has flown back to his home country.

The gold smuggling case which has large scale ramifications first surfaced when P S Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here, was arrested by the Customs on July 5 when he was facilitating smuggling of 30 kg gold in diplomatic baggage to Thiruvananthapuram from Dubai.

It turned murkier when the name of Swapna Suresh, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here and employed with the state IT Department, surfaced. The case turned full circle when their links with the second most powerful person in the Chief Minister's office -- his Principal Secretary M Sivasankar, were revealed.

Along with Sivasankar, another top official in the IT department, Arun Balachandran, has also been removed.