Kochi: As the probe into the gold smuggling case carries on new characters with association to the accused are emerging. The Customs has likely zeroed in on a key link in the racket that exploited the diplomatic channels to bring in gold illegally.
A Muvattupuzha native helped Faisal Fareed send smuggled gold from Dubai to Kerala through the diplomatic route, Customs officials said.
Fareed, a Thrissur native based in Dubai, is one of the main accused in the Trivandrum Airport gold smuggling case.
Rabbins, who is now in Dubai, had sent some parcels, with gold for smuggling, in the name of Faisal and Jalaal Muhammed said a statement.
Jalaal, who is accused of distributing gold to hawala operators who had put money in the smuggling operations, has been already arrested by the Dubai Police.
Rabbins was already under the Custom radar. They have now learnt that he had hawala transactions in Dubai and was involved in the sale of gold smuggled into Kerala through diplomatic parcels.
Customs also suspect that Rabbins could have planned all the operations and that he may have used Fareed to execute them.
The officials are yet to confirm if Rabbins is his actual name or a nickname.
Fareed to be brought to Kochi
Fareed will be brought to India on a Vande Bharat flight carrying expatriates from the UAE. The NIA is trying to get the flight to fly directly to Kochi.
The Dubai Police had taken Fareed into custody on July 16 and arrested him on July 19.
Officials fear that if he gets infected with COVID-19 during the flight journey, then that could affect their investigations.
So far, none of the arrested accused in the case have been found to be COVID positive. The investigation team took all of them into custody only after they tested negative for the infection.
