An incident that came to light as a one-off crime report last week in Kochi has snowballed into a major criminal case with international ramifications. Some of the prominent Malayalam film stars are being used as couriers to smuggle in gold from West Asian countries to various groups including terrorist gangs, if the reports coming out of Ernakulam Police Station are any indication.

It all started with Shamna Kasim, an upcoming film artist complaining to the Police that a group of people who had approached her parents with marriage proposal were hatching a plan to kidnap her with the intention to ask for ransom money.

Shamna’s mother filed a police case against five persons who had approached the family with a marriage proposal. The group had furnished fake identities about the youth and his family. This was followed by the group calling on Shamna’s  parents at her Kochi home. Their dubious behaviour aroused suspicion in the minds of her parents who filed a complaint.

The police arrested all the five youth mentioned in the complaint and took into custody five more persons who are said to be their associates. It  turned out that they were members of a major racket specialising in gold smuggling, blackmailing  and flesh trade. On interrogation, the youth disclosed that they were in contact with many more film personalities.

Ernakulam City Police Commissioner Vijay Sakhare who is personally  monitoring the case told mediapersons on Thursday that the arrested persons have wider contacts in film circles and they were associated with many popular artists. “We have understood that they were in touch with many stars in Malayalam films. Shamna Kasim is just one of the artists. They were being exploited for all kind of illegal activities,” said Sakhare.

The incident took a curious turn when police grilled Dharmajan, a small time actor and comedy artist.

Though the actor denied any kind of association with the gang, police are yet to be convinced of his claims. The covid-19 shut down of the film industry has put hundreds of artists and technicians out of work since February 2020. The police suspect that it is likely that some artists might have fallen prey to the gang members and might have worked as gold couriers.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) too has pitched in Ernakulam tracking the flourishing gold smuggling industry in the State.

It was reported that Customs officials had seized gold worth millions of rupees from Kozhikode Airport smuggled into the country by chartered aircraft which were evacuating expatriates from West Asia.