Kochi: LDF councillor Karat Faisal was taken into Customs custody in the diplomatic parcel gold smuggling case after 78 days of secret surveillance and evidence gathering.
The first indication of Karat Faisal's involvement in the case was obtained on July 15 during the interrogation of K T Ramees and Sandeep Nair, who were arrested by the Customs Department and the National Investigation Agency investigating the case. The statements of the relatives of the accused also hinted at their connection with Faisal.
However, investigating agencies decided that Faisal, who had political backing from the highest levels, should be taken into custody only after gathering strong evidence against him.
Meanwhile, on July 27, when chief minister’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar was questioned by the NIA in Kochi, Faisal met a superior who was under the radar of the investigating agencies. This marked a turning point in the inquiries against Faisal. The intelligence unit also examined the phone conversations between Faisal and this person. The investigation team then realised that Faisal was afraid that Sivasankar would be arrested in the case.
Meanwhile, Anoop Mohammad, a native of Vennala in Kochi, was taken into custody by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on August 27 in a drugs case. During interrogations, it came out that K T Ramees had links with the Bengaluru drug racket and that Anoop had links with Bineesh Kodiyeri, the son of CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
Following this, Ramees was questioned by the NIA and Bineesh was interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate. During these questioning, too, Faisal’s involvement in the gold smuggling came to light.
Faisal’s arrest could mark the beginning of the second phase of investigations in the smuggling case targeting higher-ups in the administration. The agencies have so far arrested, interrogated and collected evidence from 28 accused.
Multiple agencies including NIA, Customs and Enforcement Directorate are probing the case of smuggling of gold worth over Rs 100 crore through diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE consulate at Thiruvananthapuram since November last year.
