The City Shadow Police have arrested Kunhayan Kutty, 40, of Perambra in Kozhikode district, in connection with the case of smuggling of 360 kg of gold via the Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery between October 2014 and January this year.
According to A. Pramod Kumar, Assistant Commissioner (Control Room), who led the Shadow Police team on the mission to arrest Kutty after the City Police Commissioner was asked by the State Police Chief to do so in the wake of a lookout notice issued for Kutty by the Enforcement Directorate, Kutty’s home and relatives at Perambra were put under surveillance for the past three weeks. On Wednesday, the team managed to trace him to a lodge at Konthanari near Pokkunnu in Kozhikode, from where he was arrested.
Under COFEPOSA
He was produced before a court here on Thursday and shifted to the Central Jail here for detention under provisions of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA).
The case was registered after it came to light that 360 kg of gold was smuggled via the Nedumbassery airport in a span of four months from October 2014 with help from emigration officials. The CBI is now investigating the case.
With Kutty twice escaping from the hands of the Kozhikode police, the SPC had asked the Thiruvananthapuram City Commissioner to take over the task. The Shadow Police team that nabbed Kutty comprised Saju Kumar, Gopakumar, Arun, Renjith, Jayakrishnan, Cyber Cell officials Manikandan Nair, Prasanth and Ratheesh.
