KOCHI: Having interrogated former IT Secretary M Sivasankar for 25 hours, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has turned its attention to the kingpins in the gold smuggling racket – Faisal Fareed, who was intercepted by the Dubai police recently, and Rameez KT, who is under the agency’s custody.With assistance from Interpol, NIA has collected details about Faisal who sent gold from Dubai.
“We have collected all details, including his business, friend circle and travel history, from agencies in the UAE. He was detained and interrogated by agencies there, and was let off with conditions to prevent him from absconding. We are also collecting details of his close aides who we suspect are linked to the smuggling activities,” an NIA officer told TNIE.
After a Non-bailable Arrest Warrant (NBW) was issued by the NIA Court, the national agency approached Interpol which issued a ‘Blue Notice’ to collect information from the UAE. Sources said NIA will now approach Interpol for a ‘Red Notice’ to extradite him quickly, adding the Customs are also set to do likewise.
“This case has two phases -- a smuggling network based in the UAE and a smuggling network in Kerala. Faisal is part of the first network and his arrest will unravel a major smuggling chain that operates from the UAE,” said the officer.While a ‘Blue Notice’ is issued to gather information about an accused person living overseas, a ‘Red Notice’ is issued to arrest and extradite a person.
NIA is also interrogating Rameez -- the mastermind behind the gold smuggling -- who was sent in NIA custody for seven days on Tuesday. The agency is checking his links with top bureaucrats, other government officials and politicians in the state. “We will check whether Rameez has any link with Sivasankar, who told us that he didn’t know Rameez. As Rameez had travelled to Thiruvananthapuram several times in June, we are collecting details of persons whom he met there. His mobile phones are also being checked,” an officer said.
NIA, meanwhile, will seek custody of Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair again, but only after other agencies probing other cases receive them in custody. “Some of the digital evidence related to Swapna and Sandeep is being analysed. Once other agencies return them to judicial custody, we will file a petition for their custody. The investigation is still at nascent stage,” the officer said.