KOCHI: In a bizarre move, Customs in Kochi has come up against a retainer counsel for National Investigation Agency (NIA) who represented two accused in a sensational gold smuggling case at Kerala high court.
Customs commissioner, Kochi, on Thursday wrote a letter to NIA after the latter’s retainer counsel M Ajay appeared for the two accused persons at high court.
The letter reportedly said about the conflict of interest in the matter as Ajay had appeared for former civil police officer Jabin K Basheer and Shinoy K Mohandas, members of the Muvattupuzha-based gold smuggling syndicate. Ajay had appeared for the two persons on a petition challenging their preventive detention under provisions of Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (Cofeposa), said Customs officials.
Customs commissioner K N Raghavan said that a letter has been sent to NIA citing the conflict of interest over Ajay appearing for two accused.
“There is a conflict of interest as a lawyer appearing for agency like NIA appearing against another agency of the government, especially on matters related to taxation. We have communicated our concern to NIA as there has always been easy exchange of information between the two agencies”, said Raghavan.
Ajay had appeared for NIA at Kerala high court in sensational cases including the one related to chopping of professor T J Joseph’s palm. However, NIA officials and Ajay were not available to comment on the letter.
A new bench of Kerala high court is currently hearing petitions challenging preventive detention of five persons attached to the Muvattupuzha gold smuggling syndicate. Kingpin of the syndicate P A Noushad, his brother P A Faizal and Yasir Ibnu Muhammed are the three other accused. All the five persons are currently in preventive detention at Central Prison, Poojappura, after they were held under provisions of Cofeposa in October 2015.
Noushad operated the smuggling racket with the help of Jabin who was on deputation with Immigration wing and Shinoy who was into ground handling services at Cochin International Airport Limited (Cial). According to Customs officials, the syndicate had smuggled gold worth Rs 400 crores between 2013 and 2015.
