THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a new twist to the gold smuggling case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested six persons including a Popular Front of India (PFI) member who was chargesheeted in the sensational palm-chopping case.
Of the six arrested, four were already arrested by the Customs and two are new persons -- Muhammad Ali Ebrahim and Muhammad Ali, both residents of Muvattupuzha. They were picked up by the NIA officers from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu on Saturday. The agency has so far arrested 10 persons in the gold smuggling case.
Muhammed Ali was chargesheeted by Kerala Police in the case relating to the palm chopping of Thodupuzha Newman College professor T J Joseph in 2011. He was later acquitted by the NIA Court.
Ali is still a PFI member, sources said. His arrest brings the PFI angle into the case. The arrest of Ali, who was an accused in a sensational case involving radical outfits, could provide a leeway to the probe agencies which suspect that the proceedings from gold smuggling were used for terror funding, sources said.
The NIA said Muhammad Ali Ebrahim and Muhammad Ali had assisted A M Jalal, another accused who was earlier arrested by the Customs, in collecting the smuggled gold from key conspirator K T Rameez.
The two also assisted Jalal in distributing the booty among other conspirators, a statement from the NIA said.
Meanwhile, the NIA has recorded the arrest of Jalal, Said Alavi E, Mohammed Shafi and Abdu P T, who were in judicial custody after the Customs arrested them in the gold smuggling case.The NIA sleuths also raided six places, including the residences of Rameez and Rabins Hameed, another key suspect, and claimed to have recovered electronic gadgets and other documents.
“During searches, two hard disks, one tablet computer, eight mobile phones, six SIM cards, one digital video recorder and five DVDs were seized, besides various documents including bank passbooks, credit/debit cards, travel documents and identity documents of the accused,” the statement said.The NIA started the probe into the attempt to smuggle 30kg of gold through a diplomatic baggage of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram on July 10.