NIA seizes gold ornaments, money from Coimbatore jeweller

COIMBATORE: National Investigation Agency (NIA) sleuths raided a gold jewellery manufacturing unit on Pavizham Street in the city on Wednesday in connection with the sensational gold smuggling case in Kerala.
The officers seized 38 sovereigns of gold ornaments, Rs 2.25 lakh, two hard discs and three mobile phones from Sri Senthur Jewels and from the house of its owner J Nandagopal, 41. “The prime accused in the smuggling case, Swapna Suresh, had handed over some gold bars to Nandagopal. They conducted hawala transactions also,” a source said.
The NIA team, led by DSP Sahul Hameed, had reached the city from Kochi on Wednesday morning. The officers began the raid at the unit at 6am. They also searched Nandagopal’s house on the second floor of the building.
The sleuths interrogated Nandagopal for a few hours and later took him to the NIA office in Kochi.
The investigating agency has named Nandagopal as an accused in the gold smuggling case as he acted as a middleman by buying the smuggled gold, the source said. “He made gold jewellery and handed them over to Swapna.”
NIA seized several documents and mobile phones following raids at two places in Kozhikode and a place in Malappuram in connection with the case on the same day.