NIA charge sheet reveals how UAE channel was used to smuggle gold
NEW DELHI: A charge sheet filed last month by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the gold smuggling racket unearthed in Kerala reveals how the key suspects used the seal and letter head of the UAE’S consulate general in Thiruvananthapuram to issue forged authorization letters that were used to smuggle gold into the country through diplomatic cargo.
According to the charge sheet, a copy of which has been reviewed by HT, when P S Sarita Kumar , who worked as a public relations officer at the consulate between September 2016 and September 2019 was given the responsibility of clearing import cargo of diplomats, he discovered that consignments of the consulate were exempt from Customs inspections. Swapna Suresh, who was working as secretary to the consul general, and Kumar decided to use this channel for smuggling gold and enlisted a smuggler, Ramees K T, who had earlier been booked in a gold smuggling case in 2014. For facilitating smuggling through import cargo of the consulate, Suresh and Kumar fixed their commission at $1,000 for every kg of smuggled gold.
At a meeting in June 2019, it was decided that Ramees would form a gang to collect funds, provide logistical support and recruit more people both within India and the UAE for smuggling gold in large quantities, according to the NIA charge-sheet. To check the reliability of the diplomatic cargo route, Kumar and Suresh even sent two trial consignments without gold on July 14, 2019 from
Dubai. Kumar, who left the UAE consulate by September 2019, took with him letter heads of the consulate general, in which authorization letters on behalf of consul general of UAE were prepared with forged signatures of the diplomat and seal of the diplomatic mission, NIA said.
The forged authorization letters were issued by Kumar with the assistance of Suresh and sent to Dubai for facilitating the booking of consignments.
For sharing the forged letter and coordinating the smuggling activities, the accused formed a Telegram channel called CPM Committee.
It was the UAE consul general, who wrote to the authorities, including the customs department, about Kumar’s acts of forgery after noticing them in April 2020.