THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amid the police claim of having the mandate to seize trafficked gold, the Customs Commissioner (Appeals) has quashed the seizure of 227 grams of gold by Kerala police from a Gulf returnee and his wife upon their exit from the Kozhikode Airport in 2022. After the police handed over the confiscated gold to the Customs, the latter had ordered its complete confiscation. However, on appeal, the confiscation was done away with and the owner of the gold has been cleared to claim the consignment by paying the relevant taxes and fine, which is seen as a jolt to the state police.
The gold was seized from Majeed and his wife, who had returned from Dubai. The police claim was that the gold in the form of seven pieces of ornaments were in a concealed state and they were 24 carat in purity. The purity was certified by an assayer, N V Unnikrishnan, an official assayer for the Customs department at Karipur, who also appraised the gold that was seized by the police.
However, the lab test conducted at the customs facility revealed that the ornaments were of 22 carat. The owner argued that 171 grams of gold was purchased after selling their old ornaments and the remaining 56 grams were only purchased afresh.
The bill and other documents pertaining to this were produced during the hearing. Majeed and his wife also informed that the gold ornaments were worn by her and not in a concealed state as claimed by the police. The Customs Commissioner (Appeals) in his order pointed out that the callousness on the part of the police and the gold assayer were evident in the conduct of initial proceedings in the case.
The Customs had time and again questioned the police’s authority to seize trafficked gold, especially in customs-notified areas such as airports. An affidavit in this regard was filed before the High Court in November last year in which the central agency alleged that the state police seized gold without authorisation and chose not to inform many of those incidents to the Customs. The cops also assayed gold despite lacking mandate to do so, the affidavit had alleged.
The police’s involvement in gold smuggling cases became controversial after former Nilambur MLA P V Anvar alleged that the cops used to report only a fraction of gold that was seized.