KOCHI: The Customs Department on Thursday arrested the managing director of a gold jewellery based in Thrissur in connection with the seizure of 22 kg of gold from the Cochin Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The arrested is C A Collin, managing director of Southern Jewellery, Anchery, Thrissur.
According to Customs officials, the involvement of Collin in the case was revealed after interrogating the import-export consultants, B Jayakumar and T R Saji, a few days ago.
“The accused had been receiving gold which was imported by Ashwini Gold, a company based in the SEZ. The raw gold bars were taken out of SEZ and given to Southern Jewellery for further processing and making ornaments from it. During the interrogation, it was found that Southern Jewellery had received four gold bars on August 8 from the third accused in the case. During our raid, we had recovered 4,346 grams of gold from the compound of gold factory unit of Southern Jewellery at Anchery,” Customs officials said.
Collin was produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offence) and was released on bail. He was asked to execute a bond and present solvent sureties for getting bail. The court asked him to appear before the investigation officer whenever required. Additional Public Prosecutor K Biju appeared for Customs Special Prosecutor P C Iype at the court. The Customs Department had arrested four persons for flouting the norms of SEZ.