The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has seized gold worth Rs 2.51 crore from a "secret" chamber at the premises of a Malappuram-based jewellery house promoter, who is an alleged beneficiary of the Kerala 'gold smuggling scam through diplomatic bag' case.
The action has been taken against Aboobacker Pazhedath, the promoter of Malabar Jewellery and Fine Gold Jewellery, both based in Malappuram in Kerala and one of the shareholders of Atlas Gold Super Markets Pvt. Ltd., Kozhikode, the agency said in a statement.
The ED, NIA and Customs department are conducting separate investigations into the racket that was unearthed with the seizure of gold worth Rs 15 crore from the diplomatic baggage of the UAE Consulate at Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 5, 2020.
The ED said probe found that "Aboobaker Pazhedath of Malappuram is part of the gold smuggling syndicate headed by Sarith P S, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, under the patronage of IAS officer M Sivasankar (former principal secretary to the Kerala chief minister) and was one of the beneficiaries."
"Out of the smuggled gold seized by the Customs on 05.07.2020, 3 kgs of gold belonged to Aboobacker Pazhedath," it said.
The agency said Pazedath had "admitted" that 3 kgs of gold seized by Customs belonged to him and apart from that, he had also admitted that he had smuggled 6 kgs gold in similar manner in the past through diplomatic baggage of the UAE consulate.