KOCHI: Clearing the air regarding its involvement in the probe in the gold smuggling case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) submitted that the investigation was taken over following a letter written by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a detailed inquiry.
The NIA also claimed that the accused made a deliberate attempt to undermine the economic stability of the nation by smuggling 200 kg of gold on 20 occasions since June 2019.
The NIA submitted that by preferring the lockdown period to smuggle a huge amount of gold, the accused showed their intent to destabilise the economy. Section 15 of UAPA clearly defines the scope for a probe into an incident that affects the economy of the nation.
The NIA said that after the Mumbai attacks, agencies are on high alert regarding terror funding activities. Hence the proceeds of gold and narcotics smuggling are preferred for terrorist activities.
The submissions were made when the NIA court considered the bail petition of the accused Swapna Suresh on Tuesday. Assistant Solicitor General P Krishnakumar who appeared for the NIA submitted that there is no political interest behind the NIA probe.
Reading the letter written by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent on July 8, the ASG submitted that the NIA decided to probe the case following the request from Kerala Chief Minister.
On this, Swapna's counsel Geo Paul countered with the submission that an FIR was hastily registered as the CM wrote the letter on July 8 and the FIR was registered on July 9. The NIA claimed that it also had intelligence inputs to register the case immediately.
Regarding the involvement of former IT secretary N Sivasankar, the NIA claimed that he was suspended by the Kerala government. His involvement is being probed by the agency.
As instructed by the NIA court, the national agency submitted the case diary. The court decided to hear Swapna's counsel on Thursday. The court also extended the custody of prime accused Rameez for three more days after a petition was filed by the NIA when he was produced at the court on Tuesday.