KOCHI: In a rare development, an accused-turned-approver has been reinstated as accused after he turned hostile during trial. The case pertains to the 2011 Taliparamba Fake Indian Currency Note seizure linked to the Dawood Ibrahim network.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) last month moved a plea in the NIA special court in Kochi to reinstate Shihab H K, a native of Kanhangad in Kasaragod, as an accused.
The case dates back to September 2010, when police seized fake notes of Rs 1,000 denomination having a face value of Rs 8.96 lakh from Taliparamba in Kannur. The NIA probe revealed that Aboobacker Haji alias Masthigooda Aboobacker of Kanhangad, the kingpin, was a close associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. He was deported from Abu Dhabi during the probe on the agency’s request. The other accused include V P Pradeep Kumar of Pilathara, Kamal Ummer alias Kamal Haji of Hosdurg, M P Ashish of Melechovva, and Mohammed Farooq of Kannur..
Instances of approvers, particularly in NIA cases, turning hostile are extremely rare. The NIA submitted a certificate under Section 308 of CrPC, which deals with the trial of a person who fails to comply with the conditions of pardon before the NIA Court last month.
“The certificate submitted by the prosecutor is accepted and the witness is made an accused in this case, for which a separate trial is to be conducted,” the court ordered.
Originally the sixth accused, Shihab was made an approver and designated the 32nd prosecution witness. He failed to appear when initially summoned for trial and eventually turned hostile during witness examination.
‘Counterfeit notes printed in Pak, smuggled into India’
According to the NIA, the counterfeit notes seized were printed in Pakistan and smuggled into India with the intent to destabilise the Indian economy. As per the investigation, Pradeep and Haji had travelled to Abu Dhabi in June 2011, met Aboobacker and procured the fake currency.
The NIA probe had revealed that Dawood’s close aide Aftab Batki was controlling his FICN business from the UAE. Batki was made accused in a similar case related to FICN seizure from Nedumbassery in 2013. The investigation revealed that origin of FICNs in both cases were linked to Dawood’s syndicate in the UAE.