It seems Kerala has turned into the new Gold Coast for the time being. While earlier instances of gold smuggling were reported mostly from Gujarat, Daman and Maharashtra, Kerala has become the latest entrant. We in Odisha may not be surprised as similar and not so minor busts had taken place multiple times in the past couple of years. The regularity in locating smuggled gold at the Bhubaneswar International Airport should have alerted authorities to a major syndicate operating from the capital of Odisha. However, all those incidents were kept under wraps as far as investigation was concerned. With the onset of Covid-19 related Lockdown and stoppage of international flights, Bhubaneswar has successfully escaped the scanner. One can recollect that on an average, two to three busts were taking place every week at Bhubaneswar. While these incidents involved quantities exceeding five kilos, it is certain that a few hundred kilos must have gone through the Customs doorway at Bhubaneswar airport undetected. And some Customs officials should have built a nice little pile of cash at their homes.
The Kerala operators, however, seem to be novices since they got caught comparatively easy. An incident of gold smuggling via the international airport in Kerala’s capital city Thiruvananthapuram, where the traffic to and from Gulf countries is generally high has caught the media’s attention. A chance check on diplomatic packages in the first week of July found that a bag carried over 30kgs of gold, clandestinely brought in and addressed to the UAE Consulate in the city.
After investigations by the Customs, the CBI and the National Investigation Agency, it now turns out that, over past months, some 180 kgs of gold was brought in by a gang involving some former staff of the UAE consulate. The main official at the consulate, the Consular Attache has reportedly made an exit from the city, reached Delhi and then has supposedly flown back to the UAE. His absence might affect the investigations. Even when he was here, he enjoyed diplomatic immunity and was not questioned.
Some members of the gang have been arrested and the one who sent the consignment from the UAE, a Keralite, is at large. What adds curiosity and surprise to this incident was the close links Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s principal secretary in charge of the CMO maintained with the main smugglers, one of them being a woman whom the senior official had also placed as liaison manager in a state-run IT firm. Opposition alleges that the senior IAS officer working in the Chief Minister’s office, was in the know of the gold smuggling activities of the woman and her associates.
As of now, the Chief Minister is not in the dock other than for the fact that he reposed a lot of faith in the senior bureaucrat. There is embarrassment for the LDF government as a whole, and how investigations will unravel will be closely watched.
Notably, the NIA stepped into the picture primarily because the Left front has been actively opposing the Modi government at the Centre. Local observers feel there is a political colour taking shape in this investigation.
Assessments are that some 70 per cent of the gold business in the country is dependent on smuggled gold. The corrupt elements in the Customs are known to be part of these rackets. A chance check of a diplomatic bag revealed the smuggling procedure of this particular gang. Unverified reports claimed that the gang has used this diplomatic channel at least 10 times earlier.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval flying into Kochi to oversee the probe adds credence to the political angle of the ongoing investigation. Doval’s visit is a clear indication of dangerous politicization of a criminal act. It seems uncanny that the same person who dealt with the Maulana of Tablighi Jamaat at 2 am and dispersed the possibly infected crowd without insisting on containment was also given the onerous task of dealing with the Chinese foreign minister and impressing upon him to disengage the PLA from the Galwan Valley, has been tasked with the job of not only unearthing details of the Kerala gold smuggling racket but probably and more importantly, the responsibility of destabilizing the Left Democratic Front government of Kerala. Unfortunately for India, whether it is the killing of gangster Vikas Dubey in Uttar Pradesh or gold smuggling in Kerala, every criminal activity is painted with a political brush. This makes the acts of criminals more political than illegal. When organs of governance such as the Police or Customs watch these events, obviously, their reactions are to cash in and not be honest.