FAISAL THEYYIL Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The application is filed under Sec. 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973('Code', for the sake of brevity), for an order of pre-arrest bail.

(2.) The petitioners apprehend arrest in Crime No.O.S. No.52/2023-2024 of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence Calicut Regional Unit, Kozhikode.

(3.) The prosecution case, in brief, is that: on 6/12/2023, the Officers of the Customs at Air Cargo Complex (UB), Calicut had seized 2,092 grams of gold, valued at Rs.1,28,76,260.00 in the domestic market and Rs.1,15,94,260.00in the international market, from the unaccompanied cargo send to Smt.Naseema Kakkachiyapura, (in short, hereinafter referred to as 'Naseema'). The gold was concealed inside a vacuum cleaner. Naseema has stated that she had given a copy of her passport to a person named Illyas, as induced by her husband, Mohamed Rafeeque. Illyas offered Rs.4,000.00 each to Naseema and Rafeeque as remuneration for the purpose of illegal import of goods from abroad through unknown persons. Rafeeque in his statement admitted to have given copies of his and his wife's passports to Illyas, expecting a remuneration of Rs.4,000.00 each. Illyas in his statement has admitted to have facilitated the illegal import of 2,092 grams of gold. He stated that he collected the passports of Rafeeque and Naseema and forwarded the same to one Nawas (second petitioner), who is a staff of M/s.DR Courier and Cargo, UAE, owned by Faisal ( first petitioner). Illyas further stated that he agreed to give Rs.3,500.00 each to Rafeeque as remuneration for furnishing the copies of their passports. Illyas received an amount of Rs.1,500.00 to Rs.2,000.00 as remuneration for arranging such passports and DR Courier used to send him the list of recipients for delivering the cargo. He had engaged one Usman of cargo track for delivering the items to the respective recipients. When he came to know about the seizure of the gold from Naseema's cargo, he checked the list and found the said cargo was sent by one Soney from Dubai in the name of one Karan Kumar at Delhi. He contacted the second petitioner and informed him regarding the gold seizure. But, the second petitioner informed him that he was unaware of anything. Rafeeque and Illyas were arrested and remanded to judicial custody for having committed the offence under Sec.135 of the Customs Act. Illyas is already involved in a gold smuggling case registered by the ACC(UB), Calicut. Summons were sent to the petitioners, Soney and Karan Kumar. But they have failed to respond to the same. The case has been handed over to the Customs Preventive Division, Calicut with the approval of the Commissioner of Customs (Prev.,) Cochin. The petitioners statements have to be recorded for the proper and fair investigation of the crime. A search was conducted at the residences of the petitioners and several documents have been seized. In the investigation it is revealed that in the month of November 2023, a case was booked by the Delhi Customs against M/s.DR Courier and Cargo for sending a similar cargo to Delhi. A staff of the said concern named Riyaz of Kannur has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody. A deep rooted conspiracy has been adopted by the smuggling syndicate. The application is premature, and is only liable to be dismissed.