Kochi: The NIA court in Kochi has directed the investigating agency to produce evidence for invoking the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against the accused in the gold smuggling case.
The probe agency has been asked to submit the case diary to the court by Tuesday. This is the second time the court is asking the agency to submit the case diary.
The court cautioned the probe agency that in the absence of evidence it will have to grant bail to the accused. Meanwhile, one of the key accused in the case Swapna Suresh was granted bail in the case.
As many as seven accused including the ninth accused in the gold smuggling case had approached the court seeking bail. The accused informed the court that they have been in the jail for over 80 days and the investigation agency had invoked UAPA in a case which existed only under the Customs Act.
The accused side argued that if the provisions of UAPA were employed casually in the case then tax evasion will turn out to be terror activity . At this stage the court intervened and directed the probe agency to produce the evidence that warranted the invoking of provisions of UAPA.
Evidence that the accused were engaged in terror financing and that they deployed various tactice to compromise the economy of the country is crucial. It needs to be examined at the earliest, the court said.
Without evidence the court will be forced to adopt a favourable response to the accused during their bail application, it said.
The court further directed the investigation agency to prepare and submit separate lists of those who were directly involved in smuggling of gold and conspiracy and those who got into it just to make monetary gains.
