KOCHI: Confusion and anxiety prevailed at the cargo complex of the Thiruvananthapuram airport in the first week of July last year when a customs team intercepted suspicious baggage sent through the diplomatic channel from Dubai. The scene is not much different even after a year.
While the initial confusion was over the worsening of diplomatic relations between two friendly nations had the officials dared to check the baggage, now the customs are too perplexed to find a logical conclusion to the high-profile case that had rocked the state.
As many as nine cases were registered by the five central agencies and two state agencies that have been probing various angles related to the seizure of 30.245 kg of gold from the baggage addressed to a UAE diplomat at the Thiruvananthapuram consulate. However, nobody still knows who had sent the gold and who the end receiver was.
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It was in the early hours of July 1 that the baggage containing gold from Dubai was withheld by the customs at the cargo complex. On record, it was a parcel sent by a Thrissur native, Faizal Fareed, from Dubai containing an invoice of Al Zatar Spices Sharjah addressed to UAE Consulate Admin Attache Rashed Khamis Alimusaiqri AI Ashmei.
The customs refused to clear the baggage and wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) seeking permission to open it the same day. MEA wrote to the UAE Embassy for a no-objection certificate to open the baggage on July 2 and July 3, for which the permission was granted on July 4. On July 5, the baggage was opened and moulded gold in various forms were recovered in the presence of Rashed. The subsequent investigation revealed that as many as 167 kg of gold was brought in through the same channel on 21 occasions.
Soon, central agencies like NIA, RAW, ED and Income Tax joined the probe with the customs. State agencies -- vigilance and crime branch -- also started to probe angles dictated by the state government. In the run up to the assembly polls, the LDF government announced a Judicial Commission led by Justice V K Mohan to probe whether the central agencies had tried to frame Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other ministers in the case.
What had made the case a national headline was the alleged involvement of the chief minister's office. After the arrest of Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, NIA submitted in the court that CMO has links to the case. The ED and the customs maintained that stand.
Later, when the ED and the customs arrested former principal secretary M Sivasankar for aiding the accused persons, the NIA went silent on his role. Even the chargesheet filed in the NIA court in Kochi did not mention the participation of Sivasankar or anyone from the CMO. But a complaint (similar to the chargesheet) filed by the ED claims Sivasankar was part of the conspiracy. Former Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel and former Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, who were questioned by multiple central agencies, were not implicated in the case.
Advocate Niresh Mathew, who represents six accused persons in the case, said that the findings by the NIA, customs and the ED contradict each other. "Even the statements of witnesses and accused persons collected by these agencies are different. While the NIA gives a clean chit to the UAE diplomats, the
customs issued a show-cause notice to them. When the customs and the ED claim Sivasankar as a key conspirator, the NIA has no case against Sivasankar and he is not even a witness for the agency. The ED claims customs officials were contacted by the accused and Sivasankar to release the baggage. The same is denied by the customs," he said.
The question of why the customs dared to stop the parcel, even after knowing that diplomatic baggage has protection, was answered recently in the show-cause notice given to 53 persons associated with the case. "The supporting documents enclosed with the Bill of Entry were found to be not in accordance with the prescribed under stipulated format. Since there was a specific input, the consignment was withheld. Then necessary permission from the Ministry of External Affairs was obtained for verifying the veracity of the documents and to examine the cargo," stated the show-cause notice.
A senior official with the ED said that intelligence input led to the seizure of gold. "The mastermind of the smuggling, KT Rameez, had been approaching various investors in Kozhikode and Malappuram to invest money with him for gold smuggling. He had explained to the investors about using the diplomatic channel to safely bring in the gold. So many persons who are involved in the illegal gold business knew that such a route is operational and one of them might have leaked the information to the customs," the official said.
In her statement to the customs, Swapna revealed that she was contacted by the UAE diplomats after the consignment containing gold was withheld at the airport. The diplomats told her about an influential person who will handle the matter and help in coming out clean. However, no agency has been able to
unearth the identity of the influential person till now.
"The identity of such a person can only be revealed by the Consul General Jamal Hussain Al Zaab and Admin Attache Rashed. Both these diplomats have an active role in the gold smuggling incidents even though both of them are not present in India now," a customs official said.
A similar mystery continues about jewellers who received the smuggled gold and sold it in the market. The NIA arraigned 35 persons in the case. The customs has a case against 25 persons. The ED filed complaints against five including Sivasankar. Other than the gold seized at the Thiruvananthapuram airport, no other recovery has been made.
"We had raided a few jewellery shops in Kozhikode and Malappuram. But no trace of the smuggled gold were found. In all gold smuggling cases, tracing the end receiver is a difficult task. The smuggled gold is handled by different persons before hitting the market. Though there are norms to make the source of gold accountable, there are enough loopholes to overcome the norms," a customs official said.