Kerala gold smuggling: ED seizes gold of jewellery house owner

The ED said on Wednesday that it has seized gold worth Rs 2.51 crore from a “secret” chamber at the premises of a Malappuram-based jewellery house promoter, who is an alleged beneficiary of the Kerala ‘gold smuggling through diplomatic bag’ case.The federal agency said in a statement that the action has been taken against Aboobacker Pazhedath, the promoter of Malabar Jewellery and Fine Gold Jewellery, both based in Malappuram in Kerala and one of the shareholders of Atlas Gold Super Markets Pvt. Ltd., Kozhikode.The Enforcement Directorate (ED), NIA and Customs department are conducting separate investigations into the racket that was unearthed with the seizure of gold worth Rs 15 crore from the diplomatic baggage of the UAE Consulate at Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 5, 2020.Probe found, the ED said, that “Aboobaker Pazhedath of Malappuram is part of the gold smuggling syndicate headed by Sarith P S, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair, under the patronage of IAS officer M Sivasankar (former principal secretary to the Kerala chief minister) and was one of the beneficiaries.””Out of the smuggled gold seized by the Customs on 05.07.2020, 3 kgs of gold belonged to Aboobacker Pazhedath,” it claimed.