Thiruvananthapuram/Kochi: As the probe into the gold smuggling case gathers steam the role of another person once associated with the Kerala Chief Minister's Office is under a cloud over his links to the racket.
It has now emerged that one Arun Balachandran, who was the CM’s IT Fellow, had looked out for a flat near the Kerala Secretariat for the operations of the people now accused of gold smuggling, investigators said.
Following this revelation, Arun has been removed from the post of Marketing and Operations Director at the IT Parks, an initiative of the IT Department. He was sacked on Wednesday night after records of phone calls showed that he had arranged the flat for the smuggling gang.
Arun is the third person to lose a post in the IT Department after the smuggling case came to light early this month.
Swapna Suresh was removed as the Operations Manager of the Space Park, another undertaking of the IT Department, as soon as she was named as the second accused in the case.
M Sivasankar was removed as the IT Secretary and as the chief minister’s Principal Secretary over his alleged links with Swapna and P S Sarith Kumar, the first accused in the case.
Although Arun was removed from the post of Chief Minister's IT Fellow last year due to suspicion over his involvement in financial irregularities, he remained as the Director of IT Parks.
Three of the four main accused in the gold smuggling case are in the custody of investigating agencies. The third accused Faisal Fareed is believed to be in Dubai. The National Investigation Agency plans to seek the help of the Interpol to get him extradited to India.
Arun blames Sivasankar
Arun has reportedly told the investigators that the phone calls he had made to book the flat for the accused was as per Sivasankar's instructions.
The property agent reportedly told investigators that it was Arun who had called him and made the booking.
Arun claimed that he had only enquired about the rental rates and the contractor could have misconstrued that as a booking.
He showed a WhatsApp chat between him and Sivasankar over the booking of the flat. In the conversation, Sivasankar asks if Arun could get a flat at a cheap rate for some people close to him who need a place to stay while they shift home.
Arun said he then called the owner of the apartment complex in which Sivasankar’s flat is situated and fixed Rs 3,000 as rent for a two-bedroom flat.
He forwarded the WhatsApp messages to the NIA and Customs via email though the agencies had not demanded them.
Contradictions in Sivasankar’s version
Meanwhile, Customs officials said there are contradictions in the statements given by Sivasankar during his nine-hour interrogation on Tuesday. The bureaucrat may be questioned again to clarify about the discrepancies in his statement, especially regarding the flat rented by Swapna and Sandeep Nair, the fourth accused in the smuggling case.
Sivasankar' mobile phone was seized by the Customs while he arrived for the interrogation. It will be handed over for forensic examination along with the phones of the other accused.
Meanwhile, the Customs conducted another round of inspection of Sivasankar’s flat on Wednesday afternoon.
Also, the National Investigation Agency searched the office of Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited and collected evidence. Being the IT secretary, Sivasankar was also the chairman of this entity.
Customs arrests 3 more
The Customs officials have arrested 3 more people as the probe intensifies in the gold smuggling case. The arrested are: Jalaal Muhammed, 36, of Aryankala, Companypadi in Muvattupuzha, Ernakulam; P Mohammad Shafi, 37, of Pannikottil, Ayikkarappadi, Malappuram; and Hamjad Ali, 51, of Babu Nivas, 1st Mile, Kaloth, Kondotty.
The arrests were made based on the statement given by K T Ramees, a suspected gold smuggler who is the fourth accused in the case.
The trio had either invested money for the smuggling operations or had helped Ramees sell smuggled gold, their remand report said.
Jalaal had surrendered on Wednesday after the NIA and the Customs Department found out that he had booked a room in a hotel opposite the flat that Sivasankar had booked on daily rent for the convenience of the smuggling gang.
The hotel records showed that a person known as Muhammed Ali had booked a room and had given his address as ‘Muhammed Jalaal, Aryankalayil, Anikkad, Muvattupuzha’.
This address is of Jalaal Muhammed.
A Customs team had examined the CCTV footage from the hotel after they got information that some members of the gold smuggling gang had gathered there after the diplomatic baggage with 30 kg of gold had arrived at the Trivandrum International Airport.
Two more – Shamju from Eranhikkal, Kozhikode, and Sethalavi from Vengara, Malappuram – are also in the custody of the Customs Department in connection with the case.
Customs too registers arrests of Swapna, Sandeep
The Customs Department has also recorded the arrest of Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, who are in the custody of the NIA.
The NIA had arrested the two from Bengaluru on July 11 when they were trying to flee after the agency was handed over the investigation.
NIA raid at Sandeep’s house
The Customs raided the house of Sandeep Nair, the fourth accused in the gold smuggling case, and seized two more mobile phones, on Wednesday.
This raid was aimed as part of a probe into a private company that handles the financial transactions of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.
Sandeep's bag seized by the NIA from during his arrest in Benaluru was opened and examined in the presence of NIA special court judge P Krishnakumar. The inspection started at 4pm and ended at 7pm and it was filmed.
The investigation team has reportedly obtained crucial information about the smuggling operations from the contents in the bag.
