The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday stated in a special court in Kochi that some of the accused of the Kerala gold smuggling case have links with the gang of Dawood Ibrahim.
According to the NIA, accused No 5 in the case KT Ramees and accused No 13 M Sharafuddin had visited Tanzania a number of times and met Dawood’s contact Feroze ‘Oasis’ and discussed ways to smuggle firearms into the country.
Earlier, Ramees was caught with smuggled revolvers at the Kozhikode airport. But later he got away, saying he was a member of the shooting association and remitted fine.
Muhamad Ali was an accused in chopping off the palm of a college teacher who prepared a controversial question paper but was later acquitted by a court in 2015. However, senior Indian Administrative Service officer M Sivasankar, moved the high court for anticipatory bail after the Enforcement Directorate summoned him again in connection with the case.
However, the accused had challenged the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the smuggling case, arguing that smuggling comes under economic offence and no terror angle was involved in the case.