The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Friday arrested Biju M, a lawyer and key accused in connection with its probe into the failed attempt to smuggle 25 kg of gold through the Thiruvananthapuram international airport.
Biju was arrested when he turned up at the agency’s office here. The Kerala High Court had asked Biju to surrender before the DRI after he had filed an anticipatory bail petition.
He was later produced at the residence of the Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offence), who remanded him in judicial custody.
The DRI will seek his custody for further interrogation soon as part of its probe into others connected with the racket. The DRI had arrested Sareena Shaji, a trained cosmetician and a passenger on the same flight, as part of the bust.
The DRI action had lifted the lid on the actual scale of gold illegally brought into the country by a Dubai-based smuggling ring with the help of Customs officials and airport insiders for over a year. It also resulted in the arrest of a Customs officer on the charge of having abetted the smuggling racket.
Direct involvement
Investigators said Sareena’s statement directly implicated Biju. She deposed that she smuggled sizeable quantities of gold into Kerala from Dubai at the behest of the lawyer. Two persons, whom she identified as Vishnu Somasundaram and Jithu, alias Akash Shaji, in Dubai, operated the racket.
Sareena also told the DRI that Biju’s wife, Vineeta Retnakumari, had made several successful gold smuggling runs between Thiruvananthapuram and Dubai. The DRI arrested Vineeta, whose diary threw further light on the operations of the racket.
(With inputs from
G. Anand in Thiruvananthapuram)
