Kochi/Kondotty: The police have taken two people into custody after the Customs Preventive Commissioner Sumit Kumar, probing the gold smuggling case, complained that an unidentified gang followed his car and tried to attack him. Their car has also been seized.
However, the police have said that there was nothing suspicious about the incident. As per the preliminary assessment, no attempt was made to attack him. Those taken into custody do not have any links to gold smuggling or hawala. They had not gone abroad either. One of them is physically challenged. The owner of the car is a retired teacher, the police said.
The alleged incident happened on Thursday afternoon, while Sumit Kumar was returning after inaugurating the Customs Preventive Unit at Kalpetta. Three bikes and one car tailed the Commissioner's official vehicle from Koduvally in Kozhikode till Edavannappara in Malappuram, while on the journey to Kozhikode airport from Kalpetta.
The Customs officials noticed that some people were following their car when they reached Mukkam.
The gang allegedly overtook the official car several times and also drove the vehicles close to the car. At Edavannapara, the Commissioner's car was stopped across the road and the bikes left.
The Commissioner's secretary also got out of the car, but as local people rushed to the area, the Customs team continued with the journey.
Four people in the official car were the Commissioner, driver, secretary and a security officer.
Sumit Kumar in a Facebook post alleged that it was a planned attempt to attack him. He also said that similar attempts were made earlier too.
A complaint was also filed with the Malappuram district police chief.
The Customs probe team has found that the vehicles, with Ernakulam registration, were bought by natives of Nileshwaram and Koduvally a week ago.
