The Kerala customs department on Friday filed a charge sheet in the gold smuggling case, stating that 169 kg of precious metal was smuggled into the country on multiple occasions with the connivance of some officials of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consulate in the state capital, a senior customs official familiar with the developments said on condition of anonymity.
The official said the customs department has named 29 people in the charge sheet, including the former principal secretary of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, M Sivasankaran, who is named as the 29th accused in the case. According to the charge sheet, Sivasankaran was aware of the smuggling activities of other accused and failed to report them.
The 3,000-page charge sheet — submitted before the special court dealing with economic offences in Ernakulam —stated that most of the smuggled gold was converted into ornaments and it was difficult to trace them. It also named former employee of the UAE consulate, PS Sarith, as the first accused and accused KT Rameez as the mastermind of the smuggling racket, the official said.
The customs official cited above said on condition of anonymity that the accused would regularly smuggle yellow metal by misusing the diplomatic immunity of the consulate and diverted it to the gold market. They would share the proceeds and smuggled gold would then be dispatched to jewellers in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kozhikode, the official added.
Now a multi-agency team headed by NIA is probing the case and 34 people have been arrested so far. One of the alleged key funders of the smuggling racket, Rabins Hameed, was extradited from the UAE and another key suspect Faizal Fareed is still at large.
The customs department, however, did not mention terror angle in its charge sheet.
The case invited enough embarrassment to the Left front government after the CM’s principal secretary M Sivasankar, a senior IAS officer, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate. Later he was suspended and he secured bail from the High Court later.
Though four central agencies (NIA, ED, DRI and Income Tax) are probing the case, other than initial arrests, investigation failed to make much headway, officials of the central agencies admit. Main beneficiaries and dispatchers are still at large and some politicians whose names cropped up in the course of investigation also remain untouched.
The Union and state governments locked horns several times over the case and the latter even constituted a judicial commission against the Enforcement Directorate (ED), a first of its sort, alleging bid to implicate many senior leaders including CM Pinarayi Vijayan in the case. But later the HC had squashed the judicial commission.
During investigation, former minister KT Jaleel’s phone number figured prominently in the call list of accused Swapna Suresh. Subsequently, the minister admitted that he had called Suresh as a consular employee in connection with Ramzan kits offered by the UAE consulate in 2020. But the minister’s clarification landed him in trouble as he was not supposed to accept any funds or freebies without the consent of the MEA. The customs department also found that a big consignment, weighing over 4,000 kg in 31 bags, landed in the state on March 4, 2020 and were taken to Malappuram. Jaleel said he took those packets, carrying religious books, to his constituency. He was questioned by the customs department and ED. Though customs officers said the minister violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the department is yet to book him.
