MALAPPURAM: Friday’s incident in which 42-year-old Abdul Jaleel, who arrived at Kochi airport from Jeddah, was kidnapped and murdered by a gold smuggling gang, reveals that the police’s efforts alone are not sufficient to end the activities of smuggling and hawala gangs in the state.
Abdul Jaleel was killed because he failed to hand over the consignment to a gold smuggling gang in Perinthalmanna. The gang beat him up for four days to get hold of the gold. Experts suggest a joint effort of the police, customs, directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI), and income tax is crucial to end the gold smuggling businesses in the state. They also ask Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to intervene in the issue.
“Police have limitations in investigating gold smuggling cases. We usually hand over the report of seizure to the customs department. The agencies like customs and DRI should act strongly against gold smuggling,” said a senior police official who doesn’t want to reveal his name.
On June 21, last year, a gold smuggling attempt through Kozhikode airport led to a road accident and death of five members of a quotation gang from Cherpulassery in Palakkad. This gang was hired by a gold smuggling racket in Kondotty to protect 23-year-old carrier Shafeeque Melethil from ‘pottikkal’ gangs (quotation gangs that snatch gold from gold carriers hired by gold smuggling rackets).
Shafeeque arrived at the airport with 2.33kg of gold worth Rs 1.11 crore. But the customs officials in the airport seized the gold from him. The Cherpulassery gang met with an accident at Ramanattukara when they were returning to the airport after failing to chase down the car of the ‘pottikkal’ gang led by Arjun Ayanki.
As part of the investigation into the incident, the police have so far arrested more than 60 people belonging to gangs in Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, and Kannur. Besides, the Malappuram police set up an aid post at Kozhikode airport to nab the gold carriers who escape the customs officials at the airport. Incidents of kidnapping of gold carriers from Karipur also forced the police to take such a measure.
Lookout notices issued for more people
Malappuram district police chief Sujith Das said lookout notices have been issued for more people connected to the sensational case. “Some culprits in the case are in Gulf countries. We have issued lookout notices for them. We would nab them soon,” Sujith Das said.
‘Facilities not enough to nab gold smugglers’
Customs officials in Kerala agree that their department doesn’t have enough resources to go deeply into the gold smuggling cases. They don’t have enough facilities at the airports to nab the smugglers. “The door frame metal detector is not efficient to detect the gold if it is in compound form and concealed inside the body,” a customs officer.