SHANGUMUGHAM: Anish Muhammad, a native of Ernakulam, who was arrested for smuggling through Thiruvananthapuram airport, pulled the strings for the gold smugglers. It is hinted that Anish was posted in Air Customs at Thiruvananthapuram from Kochi by the influence of mafias at the top. He was also tasked with screening passengers.

Anish's method was to stop and search one of the passengers when the gold smugglers arrived, creating a distraction so that the smugglers can get out safely. Customs had received several complaints against passengers being detained on the grounds of receiving intelligence that they were smuggling gold. All the other customs officials will come to open and check the passengers' bags on suspicion of gold smuggling, while the actual gold smuggler gets away using this distraction. Anish kept the information a secret despite having seized gold from a native of Kozhikode a few months ago. Anish also tried to secretly release the arrested person along with the gold. The information about the seizure of gold was given to the media only when some customs officials strongly objected.

Anish, who was in the Preventive Unit in Kochi, was being monitored by the DRI for months after some officials informed the Customs higher-ups that he had links with gold smugglers. Realizing this, Anish tried to trap more officials. The offer was up to one lakh rupees if one kilo of gold came out of the airport. Despite the temptations, many slipped away. However, Nithin, who had joined Air Customs from Alappuzha GST Wing, fell for Anish's temptation. For the past one year, the gold coming from abroad was smuggled out by inspectors Anish and Nithin.

Inspectors busted by gold smugglers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is indicated that it was some gold smugglers who gave information to the DRI which led to the arrest of customs inspectors Anish and Nithin who were involved in gold smuggling through the airport. Although both of them cooperated in the gold smuggling, they gave information to the DRI about the four kilos of gold brought from Abu Dhabi recently, which lead to a feud with the gold smugglers. Realizing that they had been cheated, the gold smugglers handed over the details of the customs inspectors along with audio recordings of their phone calls to the DRI.