The gold smuggling through diplomatic baggage case which has been in the cold storage for the last six months returned to hog national limelight on Wednesday morning as a team of officials from the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) Kochi office took into custody 36-year-old Mohammed Manzoor from Kochi International Airport on early Wednesday morning.
Manzoor, hailing from Kozhikode district had returned to Kerala early Wednesday morning by a scheduled flight from West Asia and he was whisked away by the waiting NIA team to the latter’s office in Kochi.
He is the 35th accused to be arrested in connection with the case. The NIA officials said that Manzoor was the source in West Asia who procured and sent the gold consignments to Kerala through diplomatic channels in the international airports in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. The scam has seen the arrest and incarceration of M Sivsankar, the then principal secretary of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for his alleged dealings with Swapna Suresh, the kingpin behind the operation that saw the smuggling of 167 kg gold in 2019 qne 2020.
Though agencies like Enforcement Directorate and Customs too had joined the probe, the investigation has been in limbo and did not make any progress for the last six months. All accused who were arrested except Swapna Suresh, her henchmen P S Sarit and Sandeep Nair, charged with COFEPOSA have been granted bail. Though the NIA and the Customs had claimed that they would nab Faizal, the main brain behind the planning and execution of the smuggling operations, he remains elusive in the safe havens of West Asia even after one year.
The arrest of Manzoor comes at a time when the BJP leadership in Kerala have come under police investigation for heist of `3.5 crore, malpractices during assembly election and swindling of `240 crore meant for election funding.
The BJP’s State chief K Surendran is likely to be questioned in connection with a complaint filed by the CPI(M) that the former threatened Sundara, the BSP candidate from Manjeswaram in the assembly election held on April 6. The police recorded the statement from Sundara who alleged that the State BJP president threatened him and made him withdraw from the race.
A delegation of leaders led by former Mizoram Governor K Rajasekharan called on Kerala Governor Mohammed Arif Khan and complained to him that the CPI(M) and Chief Minister were misusing police and other official machinery to destroy the BJP in the State. “The `3.5 crore hawala case and all such cases have been foisted on the BJP leaders with the motive to tarnish the image of the party. The Special Investigation Team probing the case has been packed with police officials with tainted background and owing allegiance to the CPI(M),” the BJP leaders charged in the representation.