The Customs on Tuesday informed the Kerala High Court that an international racket was involved in the gold smuggling through diplomatic baggage.
The Customs made the submission when the bail petition of the three accused in the gold smuggling case came up for hearing.
The Customs submitted that an international racket was behind the gold smuggling. The persons involved in the racket raised money for gold smuggling and get the money transferred to the Gulf countries through the hawala transactions and using the money they smuggle the gold into the country.
The bail petitions were filed by T.M. Muhammed Anwar, M. Muhammed Abdu Shameem, and Jafsal, the ninth,13th and 14th accused respectively in the case. The charge against them was that they had hatched a criminal conspiracy and abetted gold smuggling.
The counsel for the Customs submitted that petitioners had admitted their role in a smuggling network that was carrying on activities of importing gold illegally by abusing diplomatic privileges and, therefore, the petitioners were a part of large network of individuals involving in economic offence.
The Customs also submitted that a detailed investigation be conducted to identify as to whether more persons are involved in the smuggling of huge quantities of gold which posed a grave threat to the economy and national security.
There was also a high possibility of petitioners tampering with the evidences and influencing witnesses thereby weakening the investigation if they were released on bail, it said.
The petitioners had contended their statements were recorded by Customs officials and the investigation was now completely over. No useful purpose would be served by detaining them further in the custody. Besides, they were not arraigned as accused in the case registered by the NIA.
The court reserved its verdict on the bail petitions.
