On Wednesday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigating the Kerala gold smuggling case told a special court in Kochi that a few of the accused had ties with the Dawood Ibrahim gang and visited Tanzania many times where there is a significant network in the underworld.
The Gold Smuggling Case:
In the smuggling case, the defendant had questioned the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), claiming that trafficking is an economic crime and no angle of terror involved in the scandal. To counter this, the NIA said that some of the accused had links mostly with anti-national forces in the case.
KT Ramees weapons Smuggling case:
Elaborating its claim, in the case of KT Ramees, the NIA stated that accused No five and accused No 13 M Sharafuddin had visited Tanzania many times and met Dawood’s contact with Feroze ‘Oasis’ and addressed ways of smuggling weapons into the country.
Ramees have previously been caught at Kozhikode airport with smuggled revolvers. But he managed to get away later, saying that he was a member of the shooting club, and handed it back okay.
One of the taken into custody Muhamad Ali was also said to have accused of cutting off the palm of a college teacher who arranged a controversial question paper but was later found innocent in 2015 by a court. He had close ties to some of the fundamentalist outfits conspiring against the nation, the NIA said.
On Friday, the court scheduled to issue its verdict. This is the first time the anti-terror law in a smuggling case has invoked.
M Sivasankar suspended because:
Besides that, senior Indian Administrative Service officer M Sivasankar, who was Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s spokesman, on Wednesday moved the high court for anticipatory bail after the Compliance Directorate summoned him again in connexion with the case.
In July, he was suspended after his suspected affair came to light with Swapna Suresh, the main defendant in the case. He claimed in his bail plea that various central agencies interrogated him for more than 90 hours and they failed to detect any irregularities.
He said he cooperated fully with the ongoing inquiry. Now authorities are under pressure to arrest him for appeasing certain vested interests, he said in the plea that will be taken on Thursday.
There are reports that the ED may file a money laundering case against him. It was discovered during the investigation that he had made many trips abroad and in several of them with no official permission was obtained. He was also aware of Swapna Suresh’s dubious honesty, and he went out of his way to assist her, the ED stated.
30KG Gold seized:
On July 5, after 30 kg of gold had been confiscated from a consignment at the UAE consulate, a shocking smuggling case came to light. P Sarith Kumar, a former consulate staff member who had come to receive it, was caught by the customs and five days later, two other suspects, Suresh and his conspirator Sandip Nair were arrested from their hiding place in Bengaluru.
Shortly after that, Sivasankar was suspended. A multi-agency team is currently investigating the case, and 30 suspects have been arrested. ED, DRI, Customs, and Income Tax are also part of the inquiry, in addition to the NIA. In connexion with suspected imports of sacred books and dry dates, the ED challenged Kerala Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel.
