KOCHI: KT Rameez, the mastermind in the smuggling of gold through diplomatic channel, was planning to enter construction business starting with interior work of UAE Consulate in Hyderabad. This was revealed by him during the interrogation by NIA when he was in the agency’s custody for 11 days.
According to sources, Rameez was looking to get the construction work of UAE consulate in
Hyderabad with the assistance of Swapna Suresh who was influential at UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram. The construction activities of UAE Consulate in Hyderabad was supervised by the consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.
“He had ordered wood from Tanzania for interior work of the Hyderabad consulate. The consignment is stuck at a port in Dubai. Some of the financers who helped smuggling were contractors. Rameez lured them by promising to get the contract of construction work worth `80 crore. Two other contractors had paid commission to Swapna for getting the construction work of UAE Consulate,” sources said.
Meanwhile, Rameez also revealed that profit from smuggling 1kg of gold was Rs 5 lakh.“The profit margin was too low. So they wanted to smuggle gold in large quantities. During the lockdown period, the price of gold was rising daily and they wanted to make use of the opportunity by smuggling in large quantities of gold to amass money quickly. They started smuggling around 2-5kg and later scaled it up to 15-20kg. In the last consignment they brought 30kg,” sources said.Meanwhile, attempts are being made by the Ministry of External Affairs to extend probe to the UAE.