NIA probes city smugglers' link to Kerala gold case

According to NIA sources, the team headed by DIG KB Vandana started investigation in Chennai on Friday evening to find out possible links to the case in Chennai. 'She was here for a day and left for Kochi later on Saturday after collecting certain details from here," a source noted.

It looks like the NIA team either got some leads provided by the suspects, hence, the DIG and others were here in Chennai to verify that information, the sources added. NIA is mainly looking at two past major seizures carried out by central agencies, particularly in January 2019, in Chennai. One of the cases relates to a 20.6 kg gold seizure by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in which four persons from Choolaimedu were arrested while another case pertains to the gold seizure and arrest of two Korean women, sources said. Swapna and her associates are accused of smuggling gold worth Rs 15 crore through diplomatic baggage using the name of a person in the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5. Her associates had reportedly worked in the consulate in the past.