Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 21 (IANS): A Kerala Police gunman of the UAE consulate here who was reported missing and later found in a bushy area near his house with his wrist slashed, apparently in a suicide bid, was suspended from service on Tuesday.

For the past few days Jayaghosh was convalescing in the hospital and was discharged on Tuesday and soon came the news of his suspension.

The reason which was given was he failed to hand over his service gun, following the return of his boss back to the UAE.

The UAE consulate here is in the news for the wrong reasons ever since the gold smuggling case which has large scale ramifications first surfaced when P.S. Sarith, a former employee of the consulate, was arrested by the Customs on July 5 when he was facilitating smuggling of 30 kgs of gold in diplomatic baggage to Thiruvananthapuram from Dubai.

It turned murkier when the name of Swapna Suresh, a former employee of the consulate and employed with the state IT Department, surfaced. The case turned full circle when their links with senior IAS official M. Sivasankar, who has been suspended and booted out from two key posts - principal secretary to Vijayan and also as state IT secretary, were unearthed.

Jayaghosh's statement has been recorded by a magistrate while the NIA and Customs probing the gold smuggling case has also taken his statement.