MALAPPURAM: Interrogation of the eight persons who were arrested after five of their Cherpulassery-based gang members were killed in the SUV-lorry collision in Ramanattukara in the early hours of Monday has revealed that they were, in fact, hired by a Koduvally-based gold smuggling racket to give protection to the carrier who was caught at the Karipur airport with 2.33kg of gold.
They chased another gang from Kannur who came in two vehicles thinking that the latter had kidnapped the carrier but were returning after coming to know that the carrier was caught at the airport when one of their vehicles collided with the cement-laden lorry at Pulinjod curve near Vaidyarangady. The Malappuram police registered a case against eight people from Cherpulassery under IPC Section 199 (for making preparations to commit a dacoity) in connection with the gold smuggling case. They are Mubasheer, 29; Suhail, 24; Hassan, 35; Faisal, 24; Fayas, 29; Saleem, 28; Shanidh, 32; and Musthafa, 26. The police also received some pieces of evidence from the mobile phones of the gang to prove that they had planned to help the gold smuggling.
“Voice clips from the gang’s mobile phones helped us register a case under Section 199. Two more members of the Cherpulassery gang have absconded. We suspect that more people could be involved in the case,” said Malappuram district police chief Sujith Das.The 15-member gang from Cherpulassery was reportedly hired by the Koduvally smuggling racket to protect the gold carrier arriving at Kozhikode airport from Dubai.
The gang was also assigned to make sure the Kannur gang, who arrived at the airport, did not rob the carrier. However, an SUV of the Cherpulassery gang collided with the lorry while they were returning to Palakkad after getting information that the carrier was held by the customs officials at the airport.The police chief also said that they got some vital information related to the gold smuggling groups from the gang.