D-Company link to Kerala gold smuggling case? NIA counters bail plea with explosive details

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday told a special court that it suspected the link of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to the Kerala gold smuggling case. The link emerged during a custodial interrogation of an accused named Ramees. According to PTI, the investigating agency has informed the court that Ramees revealed during custodial interrogation that he had attempted to start a diamond business and obtain a gold mining licence in Tanzania.

The agency further said that Ramees had also stated about having brought gold from Tanzania and then sold the same in UAE. To back its suspicion about the D-Company link, the NIA quoted the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee’s narrative summary on Dawood and a fact sheet published by the US Department of Treasury specifically mentioning his gang’s activities in Africa.

As per PTI, the NIA in its report said: “Recent news reports have also specifically mentioned about the diamond business of Dawood Ibrahim in Tanzania, managed by his associate “Feroz”, considered a south Indian by intelligence agencies.” The probe agency also said that the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) had sent a report to the Director General of NIA last October regarding the probable use of proceeds from gold smuggling in Kerala for terrorism and other anti-national activities.

In this backdrop, the NIA opposed the bail plea of all the accused and told the court that the detention of all the accused in judicial custody up to 180 days was absolutely necessary to carry forward the probe in the case.

In its counter to bail plea, the NIA reportedly said that the intelligence input received from the CEIB was gaining credence. “This makes the investigation, by detaining all accused in judicial custody till 180 days, absolutely necessary, in this crime having transnational ramifications…,” PTI quoted NIA as saying in its report.