KT Ramees, who is one of the accused in the Kerala gold smuggling case, has secured bail in the case registered by the Customs Department. An alleged gold smuggler, KT Ramees is the fourth accused in the case pertaining to smuggling of 30 kg gold from UAE to Kerala in diplomatic baggage.
The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate court (Economic Offences) in Ernakulam granted him bail reportedly due to the delay in submitting the chargesheet by the Customs Department. The chargesheet in the case against Ramees was to be filed within 60 days of the arrest of the accused. Ramees was arrested on July 12, and it has been more than 60 days.
It must be noted that even though Ramees has been granted bail, he cannot be released from prison as he is still in judicial remand in the cases against him registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Enforcement Directorate (ED). Ramees is the fifth accused in the case registered by NIA.
The involvement of Ramees as an alleged distributor of the smuggled gold surfaced following the disclosure by Sandeep Nair, a key accused in the case. Sandeep had stated that it was Ramees who allegedly forced the racket to smuggle maximum gold to Kerala during the lockdown period.
Ramees was recently admitted in the Thrissur Medical College after he complained of stomach ailment. Another key accused in the case, Swapna Suresh, was also admitted in the same hospital citing heart-related ailments. However, both have been discharged after finding no major problems. Ramees reportedly underwent an endoscopy in the hospital. He was discharged on Tuesday.
Before the controversial gold smuggling case surfaced, Ramees had been arrested twice in the past for smuggling gold. He is an accused in a 2015 case, where he is alleged to have smuggled gold worth 17 kg through Calicut Airport. In a 2014 case, pertaining to smuggling gold worth 3.5 kg through Trivandrum airport, he was convicted along with Sandeep Nair.
Watch seized gold in the controversial gold smuggling case: