Kochi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started an inquiry against Arun Balachandran following indications that Faisal Fareed, the absconding third accused in the sensational diplomatic baggage gold smuggling case, had made investments in the business ventures of the Chief Minister’s former IT Fellow and Kerala government’s former IT Parks Marketing and Operations director.
The NIA plans to interrogate him soon in connection with the case.
The NIA suspects that Faisal used Arun’s ties in the cinema world he had developed while running a fashion house in Kochi, to smuggle gold and launder money.
Fareed is believed to be in Dubai. The NIA plans to use the help of the Interpol to get him extradited to India.
The three other main accused have already been arrested. P S Sarith Kumar, the first accused, is in the custody of the Customs, while Swapna Suresh, the second accused, and Sandeep Nair, the fourth, are in NIA’s custody.
Arun was removed as the Chief Minister’s IT Fellow about one-and-a-half years ago after the government got information about irregularities in his financial transactions.
But, it is a mystery why he was allowed to continue as IT Parks Marketing and Operations director of the state IT department after the revelations.
He was removed from the post on Wednesday night after phone call records obtained during investigations into the smuggling case indicated that he may have helped the accused get a flat near the state Secretariat to plan their operations.
Arun has claimed that he had only enquired about availability of flats as per the instructions of former IT secretary M Sivasankar.
But, during his interrogation by the NIA and Customs officials, Sivasankar told them that it was Arun who had introduced him to the main accused in the smuggling case. He said he now believes that most of Arun’s moves were deliberate.
Arun had close links to three other civil service officials in the state, NIA sources said. Their statements will be recorded in the next phase of the investigation, they said.
