The National Investigative Agency (NIA) investigating the Kerala gold smuggling case told a special court in Kochi on Wednesday that some of the defendants have ties to the Dawood Ibrahim gang and visited Tanzania several times where the underworld has an extensive network.
The defendants had challenged the provisions of the Illicit Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the case of smuggling, arguing that smuggling is classified as an economic crime and there is no terrorist angle involved in the case. Against that, the NIA said that some of the defendants in the case have ties to anti-national forces.
In elaborating its point, the NIA said that defendant number 5 in the KT Ramees case and defendant number 13 M Sharafuddin had visited Tanzania several times and met with Dawood Feroze’s contact ‘Oasis’ and discussed ways to smuggle firearms to the country.
Earlier, Ramees was caught with smuggled revolvers at Kozhikode airport. But then he ran away, saying he was a member of the shooting association and issued a fine.
It also said that one of those arrested, Muhamad Ali, was accused of cutting off the palm of the hand of a university professor who prepared a controversial questionnaire questionnaire, but was later acquitted by a court in 2015. The NIA said he had close ties to some of the fundamentalist groups. conspiring against the country. The court is expected to render its verdict on Friday. This is the first time the anti-terrorism law has been invoked in a smuggling case.
Meanwhile, the senior official of the Administrative Service of India, M Sivasankar, who was the secretary of Kerala’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, requested advance bail from the high court on Wednesday after the Directorate of Enforcement summoned him again regarding with the case.
He was suspended in July after his alleged relationship with Swapna Suresh, the main defendant in the case, came to light. In his bail statement, he maintained that he was interrogated for more than 90 hours by different central agencies and they did not detect anomalies. It said it was cooperating fully with the ongoing investigation. To satisfy some vested interests, agencies are now under pressure to arrest him, he said in the guilty plea that will be resumed on Thursday.
There are reports that the DE may bring a case against you for money laundering. During the investigation, he found that he had made several trips abroad and in some of them no official permission was requested. He was also aware of Swapna Suresh’s questionable integrity and went out of his way to help her, the DE said.
The sensational smuggling case came to light on July 5 after 30kg of gold was seized from a shipment at the UAE consulate. Q Sarith Kumar, a former consulate employee who came to meet him, was arrested by customs and two other suspects, Suresh and his accomplice Sandip Nair, were arrested at their hideout in Bengaluru five days later.
Sivasankar was suspended shortly after. Now a multi-agency team is investigating the case and 30 people have been arrested. In addition to the NIA, ED, DRI, Customs and Income Tax are also part of the investigation. The ED had questioned Kerala Minister of Higher Education, KT Jaleel, regarding the alleged importation of holy books and dried dates.
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