KOCHI: The customs probing the foiled attempt to smuggle 2.33kg of gold through the Karipur airport and subsequent accident in which five members of a gang who were chasing another gang to seize the consignment were killed, arrested former DYFI member Arjun Ayanki on Monday for abetting the gold smuggling activities. According to customs, he used to lure gold carriers by offering money.
The Kannur native, who turned up at the customs office here in the morning, was arrested in the evening after recording his statement under Section 108 of the Customs Act. He will be produced before the Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial First Class (Economic Offence) Court on Tuesday.
While seeking the custody of Malappuram native Muhammad Shafeeque, who was intercepted at the Karipur airport with the gold last week, the customs had told the court that it has received evidence about the involvement of Arjun.
Shafeeque, who is lodged in the Manjeri sub-jail, was examined through video conferencing. According to the customs, Arjun was supposed to receive the smuggled gold and had promised carrier Shafeeque Rs 40,000 as remuneration and an air ticket.
Arjun Ayanki close to gold retailers, appraisers in cooperative banks
Arjun had been in touch with Shafeeque through phone calls and WhatsApp messages regularly. Arjun was passing on directions to Shafeeque since the latter boarded the flight from the UAE. Subsequently, the court remanded Shafeeque in customs’ custody for seven days.
While interrogating Arjun, the customs sleuths learned that he had been using his close connections with gold smugglers to get information about the carriers. The agency is checking whether he had been using his political affiliation to deal with the smugglers. It estimates that Arjun must have diverted the smuggled gold more than 20 times.
“He used to get information about the gold carriers through agents in the UAE. The agents recruit carriers for smuggling rackets. After receiving information about the carriers, he would contact them directly and lure them to his scheme promising higher remuneration. Thus, the smuggled gold reached him on several occasions. Mostly, he got hold of the gold smuggled in for the Koduvally-based racket. We suspect that he was selling the gold to the same Koduvally gang but at a higher rate. We are looking at the possibility of him using his political connections to get close to people in the smuggling chain,” a customs official said.
Arjun has also been close to gold retailers, gold appraisers in cooperative banks and goldsmiths in Kannur. “We have to check whether people working in the gold business in Kannur have anything to do with Arjun’s illegal activities. We have received details of some such people from the digital evidence collected. We will summon them for interrogation in the coming days,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Arjun’s lawyer Rameez P K refuted the allegation that his client was involved in the gold smuggling. “Currently, there is no evidence of Arjun’s involvement in gold smuggling. An investigation officer is free to record the arrest for conducting further investigation. We will approach the court with a bail petition,” he said.