Koduvally Municipal Councillor Karat Faisal was taken into custody by the Customs officials on Thursday in connection with the controversial gold smuggling case.
According to reports, Faizal was allegedly involved in investing and selling gold smuggled through international airports in the State. It is not the first time he comes under the scanner of the agencies as he was already an accused in smuggling gold through Calicut International Airport. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had made Faisal an accused in a case of smuggling six kgs of gold through the Calicut International Airport in 2013. A case was slapped on him in connection with gold smuggling in Thiruvananthapuram as well.
According to sources, the Customs revealed that Karat Faisal had invested a huge sum in the gold smuggling. He is found to have a major role in the gold smuggling racket. It has been reported that Faisal has smuggled 400 kg gold through the diplomatic channel so far.
The probe reached Karat Faisal after interrogating Ramees and Faisal Fareed, the other accused in the gold smuggling case.
Karat Razak, the CPM-backed MLA of Koduvally constituency is Faisal’s brother. Faisal is a close associated of Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of the CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. In 2017, during CPM’s Janajagrata Yatra (march to keep the people vigilant) CPM ended up exposing his bonhomie with smuggling network in broad day light. CPM state secretary Balakrishnan led the yatra in a ‘Mini Cooper’ owned by Karat Faizal. BJP state secretary K. Surendran was the first to puncture the yatra by posting on Facebook the picture of a beaming Kodiyeri in the vehicle, now found to be falsely registered in neighbouring Puducherry.
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