Kochi: K T Ramees smuggled 13 firearms into Kerala in November 2019 while he was operating the diplomatic baggage gold smuggling operations, according to the National Investigation Agency. The agency is investigating the gold smuggling case that was detected on July 5.
NIA prosecutor Arjun Ambalappatta argued that granting bail to any of the accused in the gold smuggling case at this stage would lead to the destruction of evidence.
It has been reported that 'Feroz Oasis' of the Dawood company is from south India. It is possible that Ramees’ travels to Tanzania were to establish contact with such people, he said.
The NIA said it was common practice for anti-national groups to reinvest profits from smuggling operations without using them for personal gain. Just like those groups, the accused in the case also repeatedly reinvested profits in gold smuggling operations, the NIA said.
The NIA requested the court not to grant bail to the accused saying an in-depth investigation needs to be done not only in India, but also in the UAE and Tanzania and that requires time.
‘Delay in test results of seized digital devices’
Despite the serious nature of the case, the NIA was receiving in a timely manner the results of forensic examination of the digital devices that were seized from the accused, the prosecutor told the court.
The NIA also told the court that it had sought a month ago the results of the digital devices that were seized by the Customs department, but it is yet to receive them.
The probe team made this argument to counter the stand of the accused that they should be granted bail as no substantial evidence has been produced against them even 90 days after investigations started.
