In a pre-dawn raid on Thursday, a team from the Customs Commissionerate (Preventive) in Kochi took into custody Karat Faisal, an LDF councillor of Koduvally municipality in Kozhikode district, in connection with the Thiruvananthapuram airport gold smuggling case .
Sources said that Mr. Faisal was taken to Kochi for further questioning on the basis of the ongoing probe. He was allegedly involved in investing and selling gold smuggled through international airports in the State, according to the probe.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had made Mr. Faisal an accused in a case of smuggling six kgs of gold through the Calicut International Airport in 2013. A case was slapped on him in connection with gold smuggling in Thiruvananthapuram as well, an official said.
Mr. Faisal won the election from the Parambathu ward of Koduvally municipality as an Independent candidate with the backing of the CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front, in 2015.
Earlier, CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had sparked a controversy when he used a luxury car owned by Mr. Faisal during the Jana Jagratha Yatra at Koduvally in 2017.
