New Delhi: In the Kerala gold smuggling case, the National Investigation Agency has taken 2 more accused into custody. The central agency has arrested twelve accused so far in this case. Apart from this, the special court of NIA based in Kochi has extended the custody of accused Katie Ramis till August 7.
In this regard, an NIA spokesman said that Sharafudin (38), resident of Malappuram, Kerala, and Shafiq (31), resident of Palakkad District, were taken into custody on Monday. Both the accused have been arrested for encroaching and transporting smuggled gold to another in the name of a diplomat of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Consulate General in Thiruvananthapuram. At the time of interrogation, Rammis had said that Sharafudin and Shafiq would join this. He had told that he used to help both in smuggling gold from Sandeep Nayar. Sharrafudin and Shafiq were produced before the NIA Special Court at Ernakulam, which sent them both to the remand for 4 days.
The Customs Department on July 5 had exposed the smuggling of thirty kilograms of gold worth about fifteen crores at the Thiruvananthapuram airport. The arrests of the main accused PS Sarith, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nayar have already taken place. The former principal secretary of CM Pinarayi Vijayan and the then secretary of the IT department, M. Sivashankar, has been suspended after Swapna's name surfaced in the gold smuggling case.
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