The standoff between the police and the Commissionerate of Central GST, Excise and Customs over an investigation into gold smuggling through the Calicut International Airport took a new turn on Saturday when a police team led by DySP Moosa Vallikkadan raided the house of a GST inspector at Kozhikode.
This time the raid on GST inspector Sandeep Nain’s quarters was with a warrant from a magistrate. And, the police team is learned to have found nothing incriminating from Mr. Nain’s quarters.
On October 12, the police had raided Mr. Nain’s quarters, confiscated his mobile phone and the car and taken him forcibly to Malappuram as part of an investigation into a gold smuggling racket involving Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Assistant Commandant Naveen. Both Mr. Nain and Mr. Naveen hail from Haryana and are friends.
The police action on October 12 had angered the Central GST Commissionerate as the police had not followed legal procedures. GST Commissioner Manish Chandra raised the issue with the police top brass in the State and threatened to move against the police for their “illegal action”.
The police team investigating the gold smuggling racket under District Police Chief Sujith Das S. was under pressure as the police top brass began asking questions about their actions. Mr. Sujith Das, denying any unauthorised action, had told his superior that the police team had taken Mr. Nain out in a friendly manner, and that no raid had been conducted on October 12.
The police last week had submitted in the High Court that Mr. Nain was not an accused in the case involving the CISF assistant commandant, and that the police had no intention to arrest him.
Saturday’s police raid on Mr. Nain’s quarters is widely viewed as an attempt to “legalise” the earlier actions which had upset the GST Commissionerate.
The Kondotty DySP also served a notice on Mr. Nain on Saturday to take away his car bearing the registration number HR08-N2799 from the Kondotty Police Station within two days. In the notice, the DySP said that it was lying at the police station since October 12. The DySP also threatened that further action would be taken if Mr. Nain did not take it back in two days.
As for Mr. Nain, the police had forcibly taken away his car from his quarters on October 12 and had given him no seizure memo. The police have no answer how the car reached the Kondotty police station premises. And, it remained a question of egos for the police to take the car back to where they took it, and for the GST inspector to take it home from the police station.
