The police arrested four accomplice of a gold smuggler on charges of kidnap, rioting, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation here on Thursday.
Following a complaint from Rahman Khan, 38, of Pudukottai, the police registered a case against K. Sivakumar, 42, of Nagapattinam district and arrested four of his accomplices identified as Mohamed Azarudeen, 30, Ismail Shabeer, 30, Yasin, 30, of Ramanathapuram and Marudhupandi, 49, of Pudukottai.
Devipattinam police registered cases against them under IPC Sections 147, 294b, 342, 323, 365 and 506 (2).
Initial probe showed that Rahman and Sivakumar were involved in smuggling gold from Sri Lanka. On September 24, Sivakumar asked Rahman to collect a consignment from his ‘contact’ in the island nation.
Following this, Rahman and his men set off into the sea and received the consignment and handed it over to Sivakumar. However, it was found to be ‘adulterated’. Annoyed by this, Sivakumar and his accomplice kidnapped Rahman and his men identified as Ravuthar Kani, 36, and Ayub Khan, 33, in a car and threatened them with dire consequences. They were illegally confined in a place and assaulted, the complaint stated.
An internal feud between two persons, who were allegedly engaged in smuggling gold from Sri Lanka, snowballed into kidnap and criminal intimidation. Police were unaware of the exact quantity of gold smuggled, but it was suspected that close to six to seven kg that was sent to Sivakumar by his contact person in Sri Lanka, who was identified as Dinesh.
A senior officer, who quizzed Sivakumar, said they were likely to inform the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Customs officials for further investigation on the complaint.
Only two days ago, Q Branch police seized a little over two tons of turmeric and arrested two persons at Thondi in the district after it was allegedly being smuggled to Sri Lanka by a gang.