Gold smuggling case: NIA gets 7-day custody of Sarith

Kochi: P S Sarith, a prime accused in the sensational gold smuggling case was sent to National Investigation Agency's (NIA) custody for seven days by a special court on Friday.

Considering the application filed by the investigation agency, the NIA special court in Kochi granted custody of Sarith, a former employee of UAE consulate in Kerala.

Sarith was arrested by the Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate last week in connection with the seizure of gold worth nearly Rs 15 crore from a "diplomatic baggage" at Thiruvananthapuram international airport recently.

He was under the custody of the Customs Preventive Commissionerate till July 15.

Sarith will be interrogated in the presence of Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, two other arrested accused already in the custody of NIA.

In its application seeking the custody of Sarith, NIA said he was one of the prime accused in the case and his custodial interrogation is required to unearth the truth and larger conspiracy in the gold smuggling case.

Meanwhile, sleuths from the Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate probing the case conducted raids at various locations on Friday.

Sources said the ancestral residence of Gulf- based businessman Faizal Fareed was raided by the sleuths.

Fareed is also named as an accused by the NIA in the case.

The state government has been under fire ever since it was found that Swapna was found working in the state IT department and alleged to have close links with chief minister's Principal Secretary M Sivasankar.

As the Customs suspected a smuggling syndicate had misused the name of a person in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consulate and sent the baggage addressed to him, the probe in the case was entrusted NIA.