Kerala gold smuggling case: Court grants bail to 10 accused

KOCHI: In a set back to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the terror angle behind the diplomatic channel gold smuggling case, 10 among the accused were granted bail by the NIA special court on Thursday. Bail was granted to the accused, mostly financiers and buyers of the racket, on the grounds that there was no evidence yet to link them with terrorist activities.
Meanwhile, Swapna Suresh and Sarith P S, who had filed a plea, withdrew the same on Thursday.
Special judge P Krishna Kumar, observed that at least in the case of certain petitioners it was essential to draw a line of distinction, by separating them from the ‘frontline’ accused persons who alleged to have devised the plan of smuggling gold through the diplomatic cargo. The court observed that there was nothing in the case diary (CD) to show that the money spent by the petitioners was coming from any terror outfits or that they received the gold for transferring it to any such dark forces or even their connection whatsoever with any terrorist forces.
The court found that even though it was repeatedly alleged in the counter statements submitted by the NIA that the petitioners have acted with an intention to damage the economic security of India, there was no material whatsoever, in the case diary to prima facie satisfy that they did it with such an intention.
“Now, more than 90 days have elapsed after the commencement of the investigation by the NIA. From the case diary provided by them, it is obvious that what is so far established by NIA is only that the petitioners have funded the frontline accused persons for smuggling gold through the diplomatic channel and they conspired with them,” the court observed.
The evidence so far collected by the agency against these petitioners, to a large extent, is in the form of statements of the accused persons themselves, from such evidence, what appears is that they have smuggled the gold for making business profit, the court order states.
Bail was granted to accused Mohamed Anwar T M, Abdu P T, Hamjad Ali, Abdul Hameed P M, Jifsal C V, Muhammed Abdul Shameem, Aboobacker Pazedath, Muhammed Ali Ebrahim, Muhammed Shafeeq A and Said Alavi E. The court, however, denied bail to Mohammed Shafi P, Muhammed Ali and Sharafuddeen K T after considering the strong objection of the prosecution on the ground that they have a very suspicious background.
The court also observed that the case indeed is extra-ordinary due to the huge quantity involved, the use of diplomatic channel which could affect the relationship between India and another country and the apprehension raised by NIA that the smuggled gold could be used for terror funding. In this light, the contention of the petitioners that the NIA investigation is meaningless cannot be accepted, the court observed.
The court said that the NIA probe is in the right direction and there should be an extensive probe into the aspect of terror funding. “But the question to be determined by the court is whether the agency has succeeded in prima facie establishing the above said three distinguishable aspects as against all the petitioners, even when the investigation has advanced to the present stage,” the court order states.
According to prosecution, Muhammed Ali, was formerly prosecuted under the UA (P) Act and still has connections with an extremist group.