Alappuzha: A 39-year-old Alappuzha woman, who was reportedly abducted and later released by a gold smuggling gang on Monday, admitted that she had helped smuggle gold from the Gulf.
She said that she was given a bag by a person named Haneefa in Dubai to be carried to Kerala. However, when she realized the bag contained a huge amount of gold, she discarded it at the airport in Mali for the fear of being caught.
Bindu charged the kidnappers of assaulting her in the car. She said the abductors had planned to take her to Nelliyampathy in Palakkad. She also identified two of the kidnappers and said she knew them by their names as Harris and Shihab.
The Customs Department launched a probe into the incident on Tuesday. An investigation team visited Mannar in Alappuzha, from where she was abducted from, and collected evidence. The Customs will also question Bindu following her revelation she assisted gold smuggling.
Meanwhile, the police recorded the arrest of Mannar native Peter in connection with the abduction case. They claimed that Peter helped the gang kidnap Bindu.
The 39-year-old woman was allegedly abducted from her house in Alappuzha by an unidentified gang in the wee hours of Monday and abandoned by the wayside later.
Bindu, a native of Kurattikkad near Mannar, who returned from Gulf four days ago, was allegedly used to smuggle 1.5 kilograms of gold, according to the police.
Bindu became aquainted with the members of a smuggling racket while she was working in Dubai. They had used her a 'carrier' to smuggle gold to Kerala. However, the racket refused to believe her claim of abandoning the gold at airport.
The gang abducted her demanding the gold or money worth its value.
Bindu, who used to work in Qatar, had returned to Kerala last year. She went to Dubai on a visiting visa in search of jobs forty days ago and came back to Kerala on February 19.
Binoy, her husband, said a group of around 15 men, carrying weapons, rang the calling bell of the house, located in Mannar here, at around 2am.
Though the family tried to alert the police, they barged into the house and abducted her, according to him.
After being released by the kidnappers in Vadakkancherry in northern Palakkad, 225 kilometres away from her house, she took an autorickshaw and reached the nearest police station.
Bindu told reporters that there were four men in the car and they had asked her for money.
Her family had told the police that Bindu had received some phone calls earlier asking whether she had any gold with her.
She said she did not have possession of gold, the anonymous callers cut the phone call.
