Gold smuggling case: NIA court grants bail to 10 accused

Gold smuggling case: NIA court grants bail to 10 accused

Kochi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Kochi has granted conditional bail to 10 accused in the gold smuggling case. These accused had been arrested and charged under the various provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention (UAPA) Act.

The Special NIA court, however, dismissed bail pleas of three key accused: seventh accused Mohammed Shafi, 12th accused Muhammed Ali and 13th accused K T Sharafudeen. Prime accused Swapna Suresh and P S Sarith had withdrawn their bail pleas on Thursday.

The court granted the bail, while rejecting the NIA stance that UAPA charges would stand against all accused in the case and that a detailed probe had to be held. Those who have been given bail were involved in either giving money for buying gold, helping to sell gold that was smuggled into the state or procuring it.

Granting bail to the ten accused with stringent conditions, the court directed them to execute a bond for Rs 10 lakh each with two solvent sureties each for the like-sum.

They were also ordered to surrender their passports, not to leave the state without the court's permission and not make any attempt to contact any of the prosecution witnesses.

Directing the accused to appear before the Investigating Officer as and when required by him, the court said they shall also present themselves before the station house officer (SHO) of their respective local police station between 10am and 11am on every Sunday until further orders.

The NIA probe team had informed the court the other day that it suspected that the gold smuggling case accused had terror links. The team said that one of the accused K T Ramees had links to Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company and that he had visited his hub in Tanzania. The probe team also received information that apart from gold, he had tried to smuggle drugs and weapons. The team also found a photo of Ramees with another accused Sharafudeen in Tanzania, the court was informed.

In a related development, a special court here on Thursday dismissed the bail plea of Sandeep Nair, another key accused, in the money laundering case linked to the gold smuggling.

The NIA, probing the terror angle in the gold smuggling through diplomatic channel, initially named Sarith, Swapna Suresh, and Sandeep Nair and Fazil Fareed as the accused in the case which relates to the seizure of 30 kg of 24 carat gold worth Rs 14.82 crore at Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 5 by the Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Kochi.

During the course of the investigation, NIA has arraigned at least 26 others as accused and arrested many of them.

Besides NIA, the Customs and Enforcement Directorate are also probing the case of smuggling of gold through diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE consulate at Thiruvananthapuram.

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